


Tenebroso

by gingeringfigs



Series: Consanguineitá [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Incest, M/M, Mindfuck, Non Consensual, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-03-04
Updated: 2014-09-04
Packaged: 2017-10-16 02:23:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 18
Words: 45,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/167400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingeringfigs/pseuds/gingeringfigs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having obtained what he desires, Minato keeps a stranglehold of his most precious treasure, Naruto. Should Naruto be taken away from him, Minato will gladly burn the world down in his dark madness. Is there an end to the nightmare? Sequel to Chiaroscuro.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tenebroso 1

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N:** I strongly suggest you read the prequel “Chiaroscuro” first so that you understand what’s actually happening here in “Tenebroso”. I also advise readers to read the warnings first before actually reading the fic because it’s definitely not for the squeamish or the faint-hearted. Don’t say that I didn’t warn you!

#    
Tenebroso 1   


“You’re dismissed. Naruto, stay behind please.”

The group of jounin nodded and obediently left the office to see their respective genin teams and inform them of the upcoming Chuunin Exams. Once everyone had left, Minato activated the security seals on his office. He smiled at Naruto and said nonchalantly, “It seems that your genin team is progressing quite well. They’ve already completed quite a number of C and D missions as well as one or two B missions. Well done.”

Naruto remained silent, his expression bemused. He wasn’t sure what Minato was driving at. Suddenly, Minato was behind him, standing so close that he could feel his breath on the back of his neck. Naruto started - he still kept getting being surprised again and again by Minato’s superior speed despite having known him for a few years. Minato spoke, “Apparently… your students are getting quite attached to you… Especially the girl Yamada Atsuko who has a crush on you if her moon-eyed looks towards you are any indication. Rather unsubtle and unskilful behaviour for a kunoichi-to-be.”

“It’s just a phase. She’s just having a bad case of hero worship. I mean, our exploits during the Third War are pretty well known and now are part of the Academy curriculum--” Naruto’s heart was beating fast in the suddenly tense atmosphere. What the hell was Minato going on about…?

“Perhaps you’re right. Atsuko is still young and doesn’t know any better.” Minato thoughtfully replied. Naruto relaxed fractionally and he soon regretted his mistake when he found himself suddenly on his back. Thick piles of paper did little to cushion the back of his head from the hard wooden surface and the area where his back had hit the edge of the table throbbed painfully. Luckily, it was more from shock than from pain that he yelled, “Ow! What the fuck?!”

His hands on either side of Naruto’s head, Minato leaned over him with a dark look in his eyes that made him shiver. Naruto swallowed nervously, seeing that the Hokage was in a really foul mood, his deep blue eyes stormy and dark.

“I don’t like it when people look at you covetously. It’s not just Atsuko, you know. Most of the women in this village or outside do it as well. I’ve even noticed some men checking you out. I _hate_ it.”

Naruto couldn’t help but smile as he realised why Minato was so moody. He gently cupped Minato’s cheek and said, “So that’s why you’re so on edge… Don’t worry; I would never ever leave you.”

“Don’t even think about it.” Minato’s eyes flashed darkly as he growled. He felt ill at the thought of Naruto being touched by someone else other him. He could not bear the very thought of losing him. He would go _mad_ if it actually happened. Naruto softly replied, “I wouldn’t even dream of it. Not even once.”

Minato nipped his jaw-line in response, eliciting a startled moan that pleased him very much. Naruto squirmed and gasped beneath him as he licked and bit the younger man’s neck. Then remembering where they currently were (not that hard when he glimpsed the photos of the previous Hokages seemingly staring down at them disapprovingly from the wall), Naruto pushed him off with a yelp, “H-hold on a minute! We can’t do this here in the office!”

“Just whose office do you think this is?” Minato rhetorically asked with a raised eyebrow.

“… _Um._ ”

“Exactly.”

When no more protests were forthcoming, Minato took the opportunity to push Naruto back down onto his large table, sweeping the miscellanea aside to make room. He swiftly kissed Naruto who gave in after a mere few seconds with a throaty moan. One kiss became two, three and four until they had to break for air. His cheeks flushed with exertion and his eyes hazy, Naruto muttered dazedly, “What’s with you today? You’re really intense.”

Minato’s answering smile had a hint of feral edge to it. He pulled down the zipper of Naruto’s vest and then he put his hand on his stomach and slowly dragged it upwards, pushing the protective fishnet armour and the dark blue shirt up to expose Naruto’s chest and stomach. Trailing his fingers along the faint exotic tattoo that resembled one of the famous Uzumaki seals on Naruto’s stomach, Minato calmly said as though he was commenting on the weather, “I’m only reinforcing the fact that you’re mine.”

  


* * *

  


At hearing the possessive and lustful words, a jolt of shocked lust zapped through Naruto. He hadn’t been expecting this and his cheeks turned even redder than before. His body was suddenly warm and it felt like fire when Minato touched his bare skin. The area around his navel where the defunct seal was located was particularly hypersensitive, reacting to every Minato’s touch. He tensed as Minato bent down to lick his skin, the sensation feeling going straight to his cock.

“Take off your pants.”

Naruto hesitated, his eyes flicking to the portraits on the wall before Minato distracted him with another kiss. He asked sharply, “Did you not hear what I just said?”

Naruto hastily demurred, “I’m sorry. I just don’t feel comfortable with the Hokages on the wall…”

“Is that so…?”

Minato glanced at the portraits and with a careless sweep of his arm, he sent out a strong gust of wind that sent them loudly crashing to the floor, shattering glass and splintering wood. Naruto flinched.

“Problem solved. Is this better?”

“…I guess so.”

Naruto began to slowly take off his pants and as an after-thought, pulled his shoes off. Minato’s eyes darkened with lust and he smiled approvingly. As soon as his pants hit the floor, he was pressed down again to the table beneath Minato’s weight. Naruto gasped when he felt a thigh move in between his legs to rub against his groin. His hips dulated as he rubbed himself against Minato.

Stretching over his head, Minato opened a drawer and retrieved a small tube of lubricant that he kept in his office for occasions like this. Without preamble, he flipped the lid open and squeezed out a generous dollop of cool gel into his palm. After slicking his fingers, he gently pressed the tip of one finger into Naruto. He tensed and squirmed, muttering, “It’s _cold_!”

Minato chuckled and a pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth to distract him as he gently slid in another finger. Naruto made an unintelligible noise, his eyes flying shut as he gripped onto Minato’s shoulders, his knuckles white. He moaned as Minato scissored his fingers, stretching him, the intimate experience beginning to arouse him. The illicit thrill of doing it in the Hokage Office also excited him.

When Minato’s fingers began to move more easily, sliding in and out of Naruto with minimal effort, he inserted a third finger, evoking a hitched breath from him. He stilled, wary of accidentally hurting Naruto despite the younger man’s healing factor. He asked, “You okay?”

“Yeah... I’m fine.” Naruto gritted out through his teeth as he bucked his hips, trying to get the fingers deeper so they would hit that spot inside him. The slight burn of his stretched entrance added fuel to his arousal. He grunted in frustration when his hips were held still as a reassured Minato quickly finished preparing him.

Naruto required more care and preparation because no matter how many times they fucked, his healing factor always ensured that he was as tight as a virgin the next time they fucked, much to his amazement and slight chagrin (it was a bit annoying having to repeat the stretching process every single time but he didn’t want to hurt Naruto).

Before he realised that the preparation was over, Minato was already in between his spread legs and pinning him down to the table. He held his breath when he felt a familiar hot pressure nudging his entrance. In the next moment, he was quickly and forcefully breached, the friction barely eased by the lubricant. Reflexively clenching down on Minato’s cock, Naruto arched his back, biting his lip to stifle his startled cry as he clenched his hands into fists. That had stung like a bitch but it did little to diminish his arousal.

Minato refrained from moving his hips, waiting for Naruto to adjust. But he didn’t have to bother as Naruto eagerly wrapped his legs around his hips and pulled him in even deeper. He stifled a groan and tightened his grip on slim hipbones beneath him. Naruto breathlessly said, “I’m not fragile glass. Have you already forgotten what I’m capable of, Minato?”

  


* * *

  


No, he hadn’t forgotten. It was hard to forget that his lover beneath him was actually one of the strongest ninjas in Konoha, being a Sage, Kage Bunshin master and having the largest chakra stores and stamina he had ever seen. His exploits during the Third War were the stuff of legends. “Operation Yellow” had been an especially dangerous solo mission; so dangerous that it could be called suicidal, insane or even impossible.

Its objective was to infiltrate Iwa as a decoy “Yellow Flash” with an "army" in a long-term capacity to distract them from the real Yellow Flash and Konoha’s forces elsewhere. He accomplished the mission with flying colours with his thousands of shadow clones and skills.

Minato thought that it was probably around the time he saw a victorious and battle-weary Naruto returning to Konoha after the long war that he’d fallen out of love with Kushina and instead fell for him unknowingly. Naruto’s bright smile on his dirty face stood out vividly in his memory. He thought that he must have been an incredible fool not to realise his feelings sooner and act on them even sooner. Kushina with her green eyes was a distant memory as he looked into Naruto’s bright blue eyes that were like a mirror to his.

He growled, “You’re _mine_.” before he started fucking Naruto into the table so hard that if he did it with more force, they would have broken the table. He pressed hard biting kisses to the curve of his neck and wherever he could reach; leaving vivid red marks on tanned skin that would bruise. He wrapped his hands in a bruising grip around Naruto’s hips as he thrust deep into his body. Naruto barely could breathe as pleasure mingled with pain ripped through him. Ignoring the annoying pens and papers that were digging into his skin between his shoulders and having no leverage in his position, he could only hang on and take Minato’s violent thrusts with breathless gasps.

He was fairly certain that he was going to end up with a lot of strange imprints and paper cuts aside from the usual hickeys, finger-shaped bruises and bite-marks from Minato. But it wouldn’t matter at the end of the day when his healing factor healed him. Right now, he was too busy having the living daylights screwed out of him to be able to think beyond his urgent need.

Then Minato raised his hips at an angle and bent him in double, allowing him to penetrate even deeper and slam into his prostrate. Colourful lights exploding in his vision, Naruto fisted his hands, accidentally crumpling and tearing a few reports as he cursed unintelligibly.

Minato breathlessly chuckled, his deep voice vibrating through Naruto. Naruto’s head limply dropped back to the table with a dull thud as the vibrations went through his body, stimulating his sensitive cock. He didn’t dare to lift his hand to his cock because he was too busy holding onto the edge of the desk to prevent from being pushed off by Minato’s forceful thrusts. However, he did scream when Minato bit him hard on his neck in a certain spot, a spike of pleasure electrifying his nerves. Naruto was so close…!

Minato lifted his head to glance briefly at his work and was pleased to see a small familiar spiral seal flicker into existence. It was still working. Aside from that, his lover was quite the feast for the eyes, looking completely debauched beneath him with a rosy flush on his cheeks and glazed blue eyes that reminded of a hot cloudless summer sky.

It sent a thrill through him to see his marks on Naruto’s smooth skin in such an intimate fashion. It meant that Naruto was his and he planned to keep it that way for a very long time. He would not tire of him like he had with Kushina. Feeling his peak approaching, Minato picked up his speed and Naruto wailed, his hot and willing body tightening around him.

Finally hitting his peak, Minato thrust as deeply as he could into Naruto with a hiss as he spilled his seed into him. Overwhelmed, Naruto climaxed, stifling a moan in Minato’s shoulder as he clenched around him and staining their shirts with his sticky semen.

  


* * *

  


Minato checked over his appearance one more time. When he was satisfied that he didn’t look like a mess, he deactivated the security seals. Naruto continued to sprawl limply on his desk, his chest heaving in exertion and his eyes closed. He was almost completely nude with only his fishnet armour half-on. Vivid red bite-marks littered his tanned skin, clustering on the curve of his neck. Purple finger-shaped bruises were starting to form on his hips and thighs. Naruto’s voice was husky from the screams Minato had wrung out of him as he tiredly stated, “I’m going to feel it for _hours_.”

An illicit thrill went through him as he saw his marks on Naruto’s smooth skin in such an intimate fashion. His gaze lingered on a white streak that was smeared on a sweaty inner thigh. Lustful desire stirred faintly at the extremely erotic sight. Forcefully suppressing the temptation to go for another round, Minato offered, “I can take you home if you are too tired to move.”

Naruto propped himself up on his elbows and looked at him with an exhausted smile before sliding off the table to get dressed. As he wobbly searched for his pants, he replied, “Thanks for the kind offer. But I’ve got to meet my genin team to inform them of their participation in the Chuunin Exams. I’m already extremely late because of you.”

Minato felt a flicker of displeasure at the reminder of Atsuko. He walked over to Naruto and pulled his face up to kiss him deeply before simply saying, “Alright. I wish your genin team the best of luck in the upcoming Chuunin Exams. I’ll see you later.”

“Thanks. My genin team will appreciate it.” Fully dressed within minutes, Naruto finally tied on his hitai-ate and smiled back at him before walking out of the door with a slight limp. Once he was gone, Minato smirked darkly. The Chuunin Exams were going to be very interesting indeed.


	2. Tenebroso 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having obtained what he desires, Minato keeps a stranglehold of his most precious treasure, Naruto. Should Naruto be taken away from him, Minato will gladly burn the world down in his dark madness. Is there an end to the nightmare?

#  Tenebroso 2

The second part of the Chuunin Exams had officially started. Yamada Astuko, aspiring Chuunin-to-be and member of Team Naruto, was feeling nervous as she carefully navigated the thick underbrush of the Forest of Death. She was trying to reach the rendezvous point where she was supposed to meet her teammates. She finally reached a clearing with a small stream running through it. Atsuko checked the map in her hands once more and confirmed that she had finally reached the rendezvous point. In the distance over the trees, she could see the Tower. Now, she just had to wait for her teammates to show up.

Atsuko nervously put her hand in her pouch to check that the scroll she was carrying was still safe. The papery stiff surface reassured her that it was still safe though it did little to soothe her rising anxiety. Her teammate Tomo Oita was supposed to be the decoy while her other teammate Ueda Mokutou covered him and obtain the Heaven scroll to the Earth scroll that she now carried. Atsuko wasn’t as a good fighter as Mokutou nor was she as sly as Oita but she could run and hide very well.

“I hope that they arrive soon. I also really, really _hope_ that no enemies show up here…” She muttered to herself.

Atsuko jumped when she heard a branch break. She immediately hid in a tree, her heart pounding as she watched out for any enemies. After a few minutes and nothing happened, Atsuko cautiously crawled out of her hiding place, feeling foolish when she saw a squirrel dash in front of her.

“…It was just a squirrel.”

Suddenly she felt an overwhelming chakra presence that was so powerful it suffocated her. And with it, there was such pure concentrated killing intent all directed at her; it felt like it was eviscerating her. Gasping and collapsing to her knees, Atsuko thought she was going to have a heart attack. Barely staying coherent, she grabbed a kunai from her pouch in clammy, numb fingers and turned around in a crouch to face the enemy. She paled at who she saw and stammered, “…W-why a-are you here?!”

His voice was as cold as the Arctic. “You know why.”

Before she could react, her mind suddenly felt like it was being torn apart. Her kunai clattered to the ground as she gripped her head. It was an excruciating agony and she could do nothing to stop it. She blacked out.

  


* * *

  


“I’m sorry but Yamada Atsuko is no longer fit for active duty. She is too severely damaged by the unknown genjutsu she was placed under. My sincere condolences, sir.” The doctor regretfully said to Naruto. Still reeling with shock from the news, he asked with a desperate hope, “She’ll recover, won’t she?”

“…That, I cannot answer. It’s a miracle that your student is still alive from the trauma she went through. This unknown attack was so stressful on her psyche that it actually caused a stroke. It’s a very slim chance that Atsuko will recover from her catatonia, not to mention her future career as a shinobi. If Tsunade-sama was here, she might be able to give you a better prognosis. But I doubt that even her great skill could save her – our best experts have reported that nothing of her mind remains…” The doctor was calm, contrasting with Naruto’s agitated state.

Naruto clenched his jaw as he looked at the door that led to his student’s ward. He could still vividly see her still and pale form lying on the bed. While he was prepared for the ruthless possibility that his students could be injured or killed in the line of duty, he had never expected such an awful thing to happen to Atsuko who was always very cautious and sensible.

It was cold comfort that his other two students Mokutou and Oita had qualified for the finals. Their haste in bringing the comatose Atsuko to the Tower had been crucial to her survival – it had been touch and go. Naruto wondered who was the attacker behind this senseless violence for the umpteenth time. Coming up blank, he finally said wearily, “Thank you.”

“I wish your student the best of luck in her recovery. Your other students are in the finals, aren’t they? Congratulations.” The doctor said kindly before walking away.

  


* * *

  


“My condolences and congratulations, Naruto.” Minato said warmly as he welcomed the jounin into his office. Naruto glanced at him questioningly, “Congratulations for what?”

Minato chuckled in amusement, “Your genins passed. They’re officially Chuunin now.”

“Oh. Right. That’s great news…” Naruto replied absently as he sat in a chair across him. He was in deep thought and Minato was curious. He gently asked, “What’s on your mind?”

Naruto jerked slightly, his cheeks turning pink in embarrassment for being so distracted. He glumly replied, “You read the report, didn’t you?”

“Oh yes… That was a rather unfortunate incident. It’s a good thing that she’s still alive though.”

“She’s in a coma. That’s not any better.”

Minato calmly asked, “What did the doctor say?”

“She’s a vegetable now. No one can heal her, not even if Tsunade was here.” Naruto looked distraught at losing Atsuko. She was still so young... But if he felt so sad about Atsuko’s fate, her family must be feeling even worse – Atsuko was an only child who had been born to 2nd generation shinobi late in life. It had been very difficult for Atsuko’s mother, a kunoichi chuunin to conceive and Atsuko was all the more precious for it. Naruto did not look forward to breaking the terrible news to Atsuko’s parents.

Minato was silent as he observed Naruto’s defeated posture, feeling a twinge of guilt for upsetting him even though he knew that Atsuko’s “accident” would upset Naruto. In his opinion, he had been merciful. He could have simply erased Atsuko but his love and respect for Naruto’s fondness for his students stayed his hand. Yes, it was better this way – Minato gently offered, “I’ll speak to Atsuko’s parents myself, Naruto. I’ll also compensate them generously and pay for Atsuko’s hospitalization bills.”

“You’re really kind.” Naruto smiled gratefully, his heart swelling with affection for the man before him. He shook his head and refused, “But no need, I’ll speak to Atsuko’s parents in person. It’s the least I can do for Atsuko as her teacher.”

“If you insist.” Minato left it at that, deciding to change topic. Placing his hand on top of Naruto’s and looking straight into his eyes, he said clearly, “It’s not your fault that she ended up in hospital. Don’t beat yourself about it. You know that it’s a fact of shinobi life that we can get hurt or even killed at any time. Atsuko already knew the consequences when she entered the Chuunin Exams.”

He leaned forward to press his lips to Naruto’s lips for a quick comforting kiss before attempting to pull back. He was pleasantly surprised when Naruto pulled him closer to deepen the kiss, his eyes fluttering close. Minato idly noticed that he could count Naruto’s individual fine eyelashes at this intimate distance before he too closed his own eyes to enjoy the languid kiss. It was a good thing that today was a slow day at work.

  


* * *

  


It was dim and damp. Naruto was ankle-deep in viscous water that sloshed and slapped against cracked walls with peeling paint. The water felt cold. He barely made out a huge door that he was heading towards. He quickened his steps. Once he was in front of it, he saw that the door was covered with complex seals far beyond his knowledge. Yet at the same time, they felt familiar like he had seen a variation of the seals before, a very long time ago.

Apprehensively, he reached out to touch the door handle and tried to open it. It was locked. Just what was hiding behind this door that was so important that it had to be sealed away? Naruto contemplated breaking down the door by brute force when a familiar voice interrupted him, “You shouldn’t be here.”

Surprised, he whirled around and saw Minato. Before he could ask what he was doing inside his dream, Minato was quickly in front of him and wrapped his hands around his neck. He then forcefully pushed him down to the floor and held him underwater.

Air bubbles chaotically streamed through the thick water as Naruto struggled fiercely to break out of the stranglehold. Much to his dismay, his struggles were futile. He panicked.

 _Why are you doing this?!_

His lungs burned with the need for air and unable to help it, he opened his mouth for precious air and water rushed in. He gagged. The water tasted like blood. As he slowly and painfully drowned, his consciousness fading into the darkness, a beatifically smiling Minato bent down to kiss him, stealing away the last of his precious breath. As he blacked out, his murderer whispered, “Because I love you.”

  


* * *

  


With a violent start, Naruto awoke with his heart beating fiercely in his chest. In an automatic reflex, he whipped out his kunai from under his pillow and stared wild-eyed into the shadows, his rapid and shallow breaths echoing in his ears. He also accidentally awoke Minato beside him who sleepily asked him in concern, “Are you ok?”

“…I don’t know.” Naruto couldn’t stop trembling, a deep inexplicable fear gripping him tight.

“A nightmare?” Minato sat up, the sleepiness clearing away from his eyes to be replaced by concern. He placed his hand on Naruto’s shoulder in a comforting gesture. Naruto calmed down and leaned heavily against Minato, craving for his touch. Minato easily took the kunai from him and placed it on the bedside table before wrapping his arms around him protectively.

“Maybe. I don’t know. I can’t remember what I dreamed.” Naruto yawned, finally feeling drowsy from the combination of Minato’s warm embrace and exhaustion; his fear ebbing away. Minato brushed his hair away from his cheek and replied, “It’s fortunate that you don’t remember the nightmare then, if it scared you so badly.”

Naruto hummed noncommittally as he drifted off into sleep again, curling up against Minato’s side like a kitten. Minato softly chuckled in amusement as he carded his hand through Naruto’s hair. He fondly dropped a kiss to Naruto’s forehead and whispered into his ear, “Sleep well, Naruto.”

  


* * *

  


“Why did you suddenly break up with Kushina? You were all set to get married!” Jiraiya incredulously questioned an indifferent Minato in Training Field 7. Minato was leaning against the middle post, his white Hokage coat missing. He raised his eyebrow at his former teacher’s exclaim and replied simply, “We simply didn’t work out. So we split. People break up all the time, so what’s so strange about us breaking up?”

“ _Precisely_. It’s _you_ and _Kushina_. You were the mushiest pair of lovebirds that I’d ever seen since your chivalrous rescue of Kushina from the Kumo nin when you were genin. Even before that, you were all crazy about Kushina. You were _engaged_ , for crying out loud! What the hell happened between the two of you?”

Jiraiya waved his hand in the air, his confusion visible. He had been abroad for quite a while and had only just returned, not expecting to discover that in his absence, Minato and Kushina had called off the wedding and were no longer dating. The last time he had heard from Minato was his excitement about his getting engaged to Kushina. What the hell happened?!

Minato snorted derisively, “That was just puppy love. We simply discovered that we were not who we thought we were. We weren’t as compatible as we thought. Does that satisfy you?”

Jiraiya cocked his head to the side, his mouth drawing into a scowl. He finally sighed, “If that’s the case… well, it’s certainly a shame. I was so sure that you and Kushina were perfect for each other.”

Minato looked at Jiraiya from the corner of his eye and coolly said, “We weren’t. Is that all you wanted to speak about with me?”

“…Pretty much. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay, what with, your break-up and all. Are you really okay?”

Minato allowed a smile to appear on his face. He replied, “Of course. I’ve never been better. Thanks for your concern.”

His eyes gleaming, Jiraiya jumped to a conclusion, “You found someone else, didn’t you? Who is she?”

“I’m not going to tell you. It’s a secret.” He tightly replied, his voice flat. Minato felt uncomfortable at the thought of having others know about his relationship with Naruto. It was their secret. Besides, it also felt awkward to tell his former lady-loving teacher that he was seeing another man. Who knew how Jiraiya would respond to that?

“Come oooon. Teeell meeee.” Jiraiya wheedled. “I need to know! How else can I get inspiration for my books?”

“No. I’m _not_ telling you.” Minato felt a cold chill go down his spine at the thought of his relationship with Naruto publicly advertised in the most popular book series in the Continent. His enemies could exploit his weakness by attempting to hurt Naruto, which was something he did not want to happen.

“My enemies would try to hurt my lover if they know their identity.”

“I could change the names.”

“No. You’re not getting anything out of me and that’s final. You’re not allowed to write anything about me or my lover in those books of yours, is that clear?”

Before allowing Jiraiya to reply, Minato tersely continued, “Excuse me, I’ve been away long enough from my office.” Then he quickly left the training area with a shunshin.

Jiraiya huffed and crossed his arms petulantly. He complained to himself, “Is it just me or did Minato seem a bit off?”

After a few seconds of consideration, he shrugged and walked off in the direction of the hot springs, eager to conduct his research and hopefully get some inspiration for his next book.

“Must be all the stress from being Hokage… Man, I’m glad that Sarutobi-sensei didn’t pick me for the job.”

  



	3. Tenebroso 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having obtained what he desires, Minato keeps a stranglehold of his most precious treasure, Naruto. Should Naruto be taken away from him, Minato will gladly burn the world down in his dark madness. Is there an end to the nightmare?

#  Tenebroso 3

Minato was a man of few needs. Self-sufficient and resourceful, he did not desire riches or power – though he might now be the Hokage and spent more time behind the desk than in the field, he was still a shinobi. One who had honed his skill in the bloody battlefields during the Third Shinobi War and still occasionally dreamed of the faces of people whom he had killed, much like most shinobi. (Some did not dream at all. If they did, they weren’t telling.)

This was also why he had fallen out of love with Kushina. His ex-fiancée had not fought on the frontlines in Kusa where the most violent combat took place like he had. She had been assigned to a relatively safer location near Mizu due to her secret status as Kyuubi’s container as well as her Uzumaki heritage. Their experiences had caused their inevitable differences that could not be reconciled.

Minato still sometimes felt a lingering regret when he thought of the happier times they used to share. But it was nothing in comparison to the quiet and content happiness he gained when he was with Naruto. He felt complete in a way he had never felt when he was with Kushina - Naruto was a kindred spirit and his foil.

Even before he initiated the relationship, they had always been as close as brothers. Minato vividly recalled the irresistible pull he had felt when he first met Naruto in Kusa, so strong that it had rivaled his former attraction to Kushina. He had been too in love with Kushina then to realize what the pull meant. But now he knew with utter clarity that he craved… _needed_ Naruto with such sheer intensity that it almost scared him.

Compelled to protect his claim, Minato unscrupulously manipulated people in subtle ways to drive them away from Naruto with barely a twinge from his conscience. It was actually a lot harder to curb his desire to spill blood especially from those who presumed to think that they had a chance with Naruto. He did not want Naruto nor the village to notice his actions; “accidental” deaths were far too troublesome and obvious as Tsunade’s fist to the face over time.

Atsuko, Naruto’s genin had been the exception as there had no convincing way of removing her from Naruto’s company – she was not skilled enough to be a chuunin and there were no other available jounin to take her on. It also helped his decision that “losing” Atsuko would not be a great loss to Konoha.

Minato was roused from his train of thought by Naruto’s warmth against his side – Naruto had rolled over in his sleep, seeking his warmth. He was now curled up against him with a serene, relaxed expression on his face. Minato could not help but smile fondly as he stroked Naruto’s hair. He brushed his fingertips against the strong pulse in his graceful neck and murmured, “I’ll never let you go.”

Deep asleep, Naruto unconsciously leaned into Minato’s touch, his head tilting as though he was baring his neck for him. The implicit trust in the small action was beguiling and Minato took advantage of it to lay a chaste kiss on Naruto’s neck. He smelled like home.

  


* * *

  


The day he was supposed to be born came and went, and Naruto was still alive. A huge weight was lifted from his shoulders as he finally accepted the last piece of evidence that he was here to remain with a sigh. It was a bittersweet realization that he would never see his friends again – even if they did exist here, they would not be the same people he knew. Not that it stopped him from being friends with them again, when the opportunity arose.

Sometimes, when he was alone, Naruto remembered his original world that had been in the throes of war – it had been devastating and despite being the container of the most powerful Bijuu, Kyuubi no Kitsune, he had been hapless, unable to change anything. Bound by circumstances beyond his control and struggling to keep what he held dear, Naruto had fought so hard…only to lose everything.

When everything finally ended in darkness, Naruto woke up in a new world, alone and destitute. He lost even his family name Uzumaki as he painfully realized that he wasn’t home and had no idea of how to go back. Naruto wasn’t sure that even if he knew, he would have been able to – he no longer possessed Kyuubi and the behemoth effort required to return would have killed him.

Naruto keenly remembered the first time he saw Namikaze Minato, the man who would have been his father a lifetime ago. He wasn’t Hokage yet and had not even earned the moniker “Yellow Flash” yet. An extremely skilled and charismatic jounin who had the distinction of being Jiraiya’s genin student, Minato shone like the sun, his smile’s brilliance and warmth dazzling him. The phantom he met in his mind long ago had been a mere shadow of the real person alive in front of him.

Of course, he was fond of Uzumaki Kushina, the woman who would have been his mother – how could he not like her with her friendly and lively personality? She was like his elder sister here and they’d teamed up quite a few times to prank their friends, especially Jiraiya when he was being too perverted. It was times like those that made Naruto grateful that he was still alive.

But now, the situation was rather complicated, to put it lightly. Instead of Kushina being with Minato, it was himself. How the hell did that happen, he had no idea. It all happened so fast and suddenly – shortly after their unexpected break-up, Minato boldly courted him, much to his shock. But he was even more shocked when he realized that he actually harbored romantic feelings in reciprocation – they had somehow grown from platonic kinship and respectful admiration without him noticing.

Naruto had never felt such strong desire that made his former crush on Sakura a childish and pale imitation. It scared and repulsed him. He also felt a deep shame – his persistent feelings were completely inappropriate; how could he lust for his _father_?! How would Kushina, his _mother_ , feel when she knew? But eventually Minato’s determination proved greater than his own and Naruto succumbed to his emotions. It was probably one of the best decisions he made in his life. He now wondered why it had taken him so long to give in – had it been the shame and guilt that were now distant memories?

He had no regrets. So what if Minato was biologically his father? It wasn’t as though they were actually father and child in this world _(Naruto would never be born in this world as a result of Minato and Kushina’s separation and he still felt ambivalent about that.)_ Even if his new relationship with Minato made it difficult to face Kushina comfortably (he didn’t look forward to the day she learned about their relationship), Naruto was happier than he had ever been, secure in the knowledge that he was loved.

  


* * *

  


Minato had been keeping tabs on Kushina with the aid of the scrying crystal ball. It was part of his duty as the Hokage to monitor the welfare of Kyuubi’s secret container. Another very important reason for keeping such close surveillance on her was because of her high proficiency in the art of Fuinjutsu.

Aside from Jiraiya who was currently abroad once more, Kushina was one of the few other experts in Konoha as skilled as himself. This also meant that Kushina could break his seal on Naruto should she ever learn of its existence. This rather killed off any remaining genial feelings he might have had towards her. Minato would not tolerate any attempt to remove Naruto from him, even if she was his former fiancée.

Having already dealt with the other fuinjutsu experts by sending them to far outposts where they could not interfere, Minato could not do the same to Kushina due to her status as the container of Kyuubi. He had to keep her close within his reach. However, he still hadn’t found a viable way of keeping Kyuubi in control in the event that Kushina had to be… _disposed._ So, he merely monitored her for the time being. When push came to shove, he would willingly do what was needed… Especially if it allowed him to keep what was _his._

  


* * *

  


Kushina was in the library trying to brush up on her knowledge of Fuinjutsu, now that she had some free time to spare. She had been thinking of creating some new seals to add to her repertoire but she was a bit rusty now as a result of having no time to practice. She had been bogged down with a lot of administrative work in the I & T department and a long string of back-to-back missions.

Huffing in annoyance when the current scroll in her hands did not have what she was looking for, Kushina tossed it over onto the rejected pile and grabbed another scroll. When she opened it, she noticed some neat writing in the margins of the scroll.

Skimming through the writing, she gleaned that the author was developing a new sort of seal based on the Heaven Seal (where had she heard that before…?). But before she could read in further depth, she stopped in pained realisation. The writing belonged to Minato. Her heart squeezed painfully as a memory rose involuntarily in her mind.

Minato and she… When they were still together, they used to come here often and study seals. They often argued and Minato had a horrible habit of scribbling in the scrolls his observations and thoughts, forgetting that they belonged to the library. But now that was all in the past.

Stifling a sob that wanted to come out, Kushina rubbed her eyes fiercely and slapped her cheeks as she muttered to herself, “Come on. Focus. You are over the pansy now.”

In her distraction, she missed a new presence approaching her from behind. A hand tapped her shoulder and Kushina’s heart nearly stopped as she recognized the distinctive white sleeve of the Hokage robe. Talk of the devil.

“Good morning, Uzumaki-san. Hard at studying?” Minato’s greeting was polite but it was so impersonal compared to the past. Kushina’s smile was more like a grimace, “Good morning, Hokage-sama. Taking a break from work?”

A quicksilver smile flitted across his lips but his blue eyes remained cold ice, causing Kushina to think mournfully, _“Why did he become so cold?”_ Minato plucked one of the scrolls off the table and skimmed through it before neatly putting it back with a dissatisfied noise. He replied, “Yes and no. I came here to take a look into the scrolls on demon seals. I wasn’t expecting to see you here as well and I thought that it would only be polite to greet you.”

“Demon seals? Why are you looking into them?” Kushina asked, wondering why Minato was researching such an archaic field of fuinjutsu that was incredibly dangerous if used improperly or by being ill-prepared. In answer, Minato leaned in closer and whispered, “To contain demons, of course.”

Kushina froze, her eyes growing wide. Involuntarily, she touched her stomach where Kyuubi had been sealed into since her predecessor Mito’s death. Her voice trembled, “What are you intending to do…?”

“Oh, nothing really. It’s just a precaution and as the Hokage, I’ve got to be prepared for everything, even a demon outbreak even though that’s very unlikely to happen. Isn’t that right, Uzumaki-san?”

Minato smiled innocently and Kushina shivered, suddenly very frightened of the stranger before her. This was not the man she knew and loved. Perturbed, she swept up all the scrolls on the table into her arms and hurriedly excused herself, “Please excuse me, I’ve an appointment…!”

“Hold on, Uzumaki-san.”

Before she could leave through the doors, Minato’s hand grabbed her shoulder. For the first time, her skin crawled under his touch and Kushina had never wanted to hit him so hard before.

“You missed one.”

Minato dropped the aforementioned scroll on top of the pile in Kushina’s arms with a smile. Then he let her go. Kushina gave a sickly grin and whispered through her teeth, “Thanks, Hokage-sama.”

“You’re welcome.” Minato watched her leave with a faint enigmatic smile. Once Kushina was gone, he took out the scroll that Kushina had just been reading, having exchanged it with another scroll. Concentrating chakra in his hand, he burned it to crisps.

Erasing his notes of the seal (that had been rather careless of him to not realize that he had left his writing in a public library scroll) would not necessarily stop a stubborn and curious Kushina who would definitely attempt to learn it, so he had to deter her with a subtle threat. Hopefully, his little threat would mentally disorientate her so much that she would not remember what she read in the scroll.

  


* * *

  


This time, Naruto was in a dark forest. It was night and the bare trees cast eerie shadows with their skeletal branches under the waning moon. It was eerily silent, devoid of the sounds of nocturnal wildlife with only the creaking of trees in the wind. There was a worn path in the ground before him that extended deep into the shadows.

Naruto followed the worn path as the wind cleared away the dead leaves before him. The shadows kept moving and twisting. He also thought he heard voices echoing in the forest around him but he couldn’t be certain if it was his imagination twisting the sound of the wind into something more. Naruto quickened his pace.

The further he progressed, the trees became leafier until eventually, the canopy was so dense that it blocked out the moon. He could only see the path thanks to the abundant fireflies and blue luminescent fungus along the path. At the end of the path, he reached a moonlit clearing that struck a faint bell in his mind. He had been here before.

His feet led him to a tree. It was of average height, except that it had been covered all over with black seals cleverly disguised as the whorls in its bark. There were also deep gouges in the bark at his height. Naruto somehow knew that he had been the one to make those gouges. The black ink shimmered like obsidian in the moon. He hesitantly reached out to touch one of the seals but someone interrupted him, grabbing his wrist.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Quickly turning his head, he saw Minato in his jounin uniform. He was carrying a black katana in his hand. Naruto asked, “Why should I not be here?”

Minato didn’t answer him so Naruto tried to ask again - suddenly, there was a sharp piercing pain in his chest. He stumbled, collapsing into Minato’s arms, wondering what the hell had hit him. Then, he felt hot blood soaking his shirt. With numb hands, he felt his chest and felt the cold metal edge of a blade protruding from his chest. In muted horror, he realized that Minato had run him through with the black katana. He weakly asked, “Why…?”

Minato cradled Naruto close to him and turned his pale face up to kiss him. Naruto couldn’t breathe at all, his lungs collapsing and filling with blood. His vision swam. Before everything completely went black, Minato replied with a gentle bloodstained smile, “Because I love you.”


	4. Tenebroso 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having obtained what he desires, Minato keeps a stranglehold of his most precious treasure, Naruto. Should Naruto be taken away from him, Minato will gladly burn the world down in his dark madness. Is there an end to the nightmare?

#  Tenebroso 4

Minato rifled through the book on bloodline limits, in particular the Uzumaki Clan’s curious ability to control demons with their chakra, longevity and insanely high chakra reserves. As Hokage, he was privy to the secret knowledge that the Shodaime’s wife Mito had also been Kyuubi’s demon container. It was no coincidence that she was also an Uzumaki, the same as Kushina who was now the current container of Kyuubi.

Minato noted with some interest that the Uzumaki Clan were distantly related to the Senju Clan. Hm, did that mean that the Uzumaki Clan was also descended from the legendary Rikudo Sennin like the Senju and Uchiha Clans? It was fascinating but it did not hold much importance for him. What he was really interested in, was to find out if there was a way to safely and accurately replicate the Uzumaki’s prodigious demon-containing ability in a person.

One possible method was to seal Kyuubi in a baby while its chakra coils were still malleable but Minato had limits. While he thought nothing of eliminating Kushina, he felt that sacrificing an innocent and vulnerable baby was too much. He also felt that risks were too high – the baby’s conscious might be subsumed by the more powerful Kyuubi’s conscious and that was a big _no_. So, no, he had to find a more acceptable alternative that would be secure.

It was a pity that so few of the Uzumaki Clan remained after the War. As far as he was aware, those that survived now lived in Rain Country. It would be a miracle if he could find a person who possessed the Uzumaki Clan traits. Or he really might have to rely on Orochimaru’s genetic experiments that were a last resort. While the Snake Sannin had been a genius, his experiments were monstrous and had nearly brought Konoha to ruin. Minato did not want to repeat the same mistake – he would not have been Hokage if Orochimaru’s experiments had not been discovered.

…Hey, wait a minute. Something about the description of the Uzumaki Clan bloodline sounded familiar. Incredibly high chakra reserves, longevity and demon-containing chakra? It sounded almost like Naruto’s abilities, at least the ones he knew. He didn’t know if Naruto could contain demons but his ability to wield Sage Chakra strongly implied that he was pure enough to contain a demon. His ability to regenerate quickly could be an expression of the so-called “Longevity” of the Uzumaki Clan. He definitely knew for sure that Naruto had enormous chakra reserves, the largest he’d ever known.

That was strange. Naruto did not look anything like an Uzumaki – he certainly was not a red-head and nor did he possess the knowledge of Uzumaki fuinjutsu. More than anything, he looked like a Kumo native with his blond hair and blue eyes. Naruto did not even possess a family name; he had admitted so himself with such sad eyes. Hmm… perhaps, Naruto was related to an Uzumaki but had inherited his physical appearance from his unknown father who was a non-Uzumaki. Illegitimate children with bloodline limits weren’t unheard of after all. (Just look at how many cases of illegitimate Senju children there were all over the world, thanks to the Nidaime Tobirama and the Senju Clan.)

With a thoughtful hum, Minato put back the book on his shelf. Maybe, it wouldn’t hurt to have an analysis of Naruto’s DNA and see if he was indeed related to the Uzumaki Clan in some way. Of course, it would have to be done in secret. If he was truly an Uzumaki, that certainly _changed_ things…. If not, he would just have to go back to the drawing board.

After a moment, Minato suddenly chuckled to himself in amusement. It would be so ironic if Naruto was indeed an Uzumaki. He would have left an Uzumaki, only to end up with an Uzumaki in the end!

  


* * *

  


It was a beautiful sunny day with barely any clouds in the sky. Kushina met Mikoto at a nice little café for tea by the river that shimmered in the sunlight. Her four-year-old elder son Uchiha Itachi, was solemnly playing with the fish in the river, dangling his fingers in the water and watching them swim. Her younger son, three-months-old Uchiha Sasuke was sound asleep in the pram beside the table. Mikoto looked radiant as she warmly greeted her, “Hello, Kushina. It’s been quite a while since we last went out like this.”

“It has. We’ve been both very busy…” Kushina replied. She couldn’t help but smile at the adorable sight of Sasuke peacefully sleeping in the pram and Itachi playing at the riverside. She teasingly said, “Your two sons are going to break many hearts when they grow up, much like you did before you got married!”

“Oh yes, quite…” Mikoto agreed with a soft lady-like laugh. Her black eyes suddenly sharpened and she asked, “How are _you_ anyway? You didn’t just call me out here for no reason, Kushina-chan… You have something you want to say to me, don’t you?”

Kushina groaned and planted her face in her arms, narrowly avoiding the teapot and plate of biscuits. Mikoto had to strain to hear her mumbled words, “You’re so perceptive as ever… I’m just… so confused and scared right now… Minato, I mean, the Hokage, he’s so different now!”

“You still haven’t moved on?” Mikoto raised her eyebrow in surprise. She had been there when Kushina cried her heart out in the privacy of her home when Minato broke up with her, much to her surprise. It had been so out of the blue and sudden. Even to this day, she still didn’t know the reason for Minato’s sudden change of plans.

Kushina looked up with a furious look in her eyes, her red hair flying with her sudden movement. She clenched her hands into fists on the table as she ground out, “I have already moved on from that damn blond idiot. If I haven’t, the incident in the library would have been enough to put me off him!”

She wasn’t soft enough and Sasuke was roused awake with an unhappy cry. Shooting her friend a reproachful look, Mikoto immediately cradled her son in her arms and soothed him with gentle pats, “There, there, Aunt Kushina didn’t mean to wake you, Sasu-chan.”

Kushina contritely apologised, “I’m sorry for waking your baby…”

“No, it’s quite alright. Sasuke’s quite a sensitive baby.” Mikoto continued to hold her baby in her arms as she prompted Kushina to continue speaking, “What happened in the library?”

Kushina opened her mouth to speak before realising that she couldn’t tell Mikoto the complete truth because that meant revealing the secret that she was Kyuubi’s demon container. Repressing a frustrated groan, she explained, “The Hokage threatened me, that’s what! I was just reading some scrolls on seals and then he came along. He had the audacity to threaten my life with a smile on his face. That bastard.”

“…I’m sorry but I find that very hard to believe. Minato? Him threatening you? I just can’t believe it. Even if he did split up with you, he’s not the kind of person to go round threatening people, especially not his former fiancée.” Mikoto sceptically replied, finding Kushina’s words hard to swallow.

“It _really_ did happen, ok! Take my word for it. Have I ever lied to you?” Kushina protested, pouring her sincerity into her words.

Mikoto looked at her friend who looked so upset and sighed. “I think you need some rest, my friend.”

“I’m not tired-”

“Kushina, I’m concerned for you because you’re like my sister. If what you say is really true, I’d advise you to watch your step very carefully. I just can’t imagine Namikaze-san threatening you…” Mikoto interrupted calmly. She then advised her, “Go home and sleep in early. You need some time to yourself. Go on a break, do something productive; anything that’ll take your mind off Minato.”

“…I’ll try.” Kushina sighed. Mikoto looked at her watch and said, “Oh dear, I’ve got to take Itachi and Sasuke to the doctor. I’m almost late!”

“See you later then. Thanks for agreeing to have tea with me.”

Placing Sasuke back in the pram and calling Itachi back from the river, Mikoto replied, “It was lovely catching up with you. Don’t be a stranger, Kushina.”

As she left the café, Mikoto thought to herself, _“It’s such a pity that they split… They were so wonderful together and their child would have been lovely… and about the same age as Sasuke…”_

  


* * *

  


Naruto moaned as he clung to Minato while he was slowly penetrated once again, his body easily accepting the invasion. The pace was slow as Minato lavished loving kisses on his heated skin, making him sigh. He loved it best like this, slow and gentle as though they had all the time in the world to enjoy each other.

As Naruto rocked his hips against Minato’s, he leaned up to kiss Minato. Minato reciprocated by deepening the kiss and pulling him even closer into his embrace. Naruto let out a soft whine as a warm wave of sweet pleasure washed over him. It was addictive, the sensation of Minato around, over and inside him. Within that warm embrace, he felt safer than anywhere else.

“You’re beautiful. I wish I could see you all the time like this.” Minato murmured as he caressed his cheek, brushing aside stray hair. Naruto was captivating in his throes of passion beneath him, his tan skin and sunny yellow hair appearing almost like gold in the dim light. His lithe and fit body was like art, his lean muscles a silent testament to Naruto’s strength. Minato found it especially attractive due to the curious lack of any scarring save for one on his chest.

But what he really liked most, were Naruto’s bright blue eyes that were like the sky to his darker, ocean-blue eyes. They were unlike any others’ eyes with their lack of artifice and expressiveness. Kushina’s green eyes were probably the closest rival to Naruto’s but they did not hold much appeal for him; he no longer found her appealing despite her great beauty.

Minato loved to see Naruto’s eyes looking back at him with complete devotion or hazy with delirious pleasure as they were right now. The erotic sounds he made as Minato thrust deep into him were music to his ears.

“Nnnnngh…!”

Moaning, Naruto was overwhelmed by the mounting heights of pleasure he was experiencing. Feeling a heat coil tight in his groin, Naruto palmed his cock and began to masturbate, wanting to come. Minato grabbed his wrist and stopped him with a low order, “Don’t touch yourself.”

Naruto nearly wanted to scream with frustration. In the next moment, he was biting the pillow to stifle his scream as Minato stroked his cock as his movements sped up, amping up the intensity of his pleasure. Soon, he was climaxing with a loud yell and finally collapsed bonelessly onto the bed. He shivered slightly as he felt Minato release into him shortly after, a wet heat filling him. He sighed with sated contentment as Minato retreated from him.

Feeling too tired to bother with cleaning up, Naruto summoned the last of his energy to intertwine his hand with Minato’s and whispered with a fond exhausted smile, “I love you, Minato.” As he fell asleep, he felt an answering squeeze from Minato. He wasn’t sure if he actually heard Minato reply.

  


* * *

  


He was at a beach with bone-white sands and the sky was grey with stormy clouds. The vast ocean before him, was slate-grey and its surface was disturbed by the strong gales that pushed him back slightly across the sand. Behind him there was mist, so thick that he could barely see a meter into it. Naruto glanced back at the ocean and decided to take his chances into the fog. He couldn’t swim across that ocean.

The fog was cool and left his skin damp as he walked through it slowly and carefully. It felt oppressive, vividly reminding him of Zabuza’s mists. He could only see white around him, not even his own hand unless he brought it very close to his face. Naruto felt like he had been walking for an eternity when cold metal bars smacked him right in the face.

Yelping in pain as he clutched his sore nose, he glared at the offending bars before him. Then he realised where he was. He was standing in front of the old cage where Kyuubi used to be kept in. It was desolate and the water was gone from the hall – wait, the fog had disappeared. Why was he here? Ever since Kyuubi was ripped from him, he had never been able to come back to this area again.

The cage doors were locked with a seal – upon closer examination, he realised that it was not the same Eight Trigrams seal but something else. Actually, the seal should not have been there in the first place at all. What was the seal keeping inside the cage? Naruto did not think he wanted to know, an uneasy fear crawling inside him. Yet, he felt a compulsion to know what was inside the cage, an insistent pull on him.

Eyeing the cage before him with some trepidation, Naruto decided to take his chances. It couldn’t be worse than Kyuubi. So he carefully reached out and gripped the edge of the paper seal. The moment he touched the seal, a black liquid started to ooze from the floor. It was thick and heavy like tar. Quickly letting go of the paper, Naruto leapt to the walls and watched with horror as the inky substance began to spread across the floor and crawl up the walls at an accelerating pace. It curiously did not enter the cage.

Cursing loudly, he jumped from patch to patch of untouched concrete to avoid the sentient black liquid. He totally did not want to see what happened when it got hold of him. He had never seen anything like it. Finally escaping the hall, he ran down the corridor with the black mass right on his heels. Fuck, he shouldn’t have touched the seal.

“Oh hell no!”

It was a dead end. Naruto glanced back at the black mass with a grim look on his face. It was bearing down on him at a ferocious clip, devouring everything in its path. Forming a rasengan in his hands, he slammed it into the wall, willing it to break. The wall shattered easily and it opened to a black void. Having no time to think, Naruto leapt into the void just as the black mass slammed into the space where he had been.


	5. Tenebroso 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having obtained what he desires, Minato keeps a stranglehold of his most precious treasure, Naruto. Should Naruto be taken away from him, Minato will gladly burn the world down in his dark madness. Is there an end to the nightmare?

#  Tenebroso 5

He floated in dark empty space, unable to see or hear anything around him. It was just nothingness. It was also really boring. Flipping over to hang upside down, Naruto contemplated the mysterious mass of sentient black ichor that had seemed so intent on devouring him. What was it doing inside his mind? It had appeared when he tried to pull off the seal on the cage… Naruto straightened up with a serious look on his face.

Of course. That mass must be a defense mechanism of the seal to either keep him out of the cage or trap whatever was inside the cage. But for the life of him, he had no idea what could have replaced Kyuubi within that cage. All he knew was that it made him feel deeply uncomfortable. He also had a feeling that if he ever opened the cage; everything would change irrevocably.

Should he open the cage or not?

“Naruto, I was looking for you but I couldn’t find you.” Minato’s concerned voice said behind him. With a startled jolt, Naruto looked at his new surroundings – when had the void changed to the beach that he had seen earlier? He blinked; his mind was a very strange place.

“Naruto?”

Naruto looked at Minato suspiciously and replied carefully, “Why are you asking me? Shouldn’t you already know?”

“What? Why would I know where you’ve gone without you telling me?”

“Well… because you’re supposed to be part of my mind, you faker. But you aren’t. You aren’t the real Minato either. You are a manifestation of the seal, aren’t you?” Naruto calmly retorted.

In response, the fake Minato only smiled benignly. “Very good. You recognised me but this is the end for you.”

“What do you mean?!” Naruto stepped back, readying himself for a fight. He wasn’t prepared to see the fake Minato’s blue eyes turn completely black like voids. He was rather freaked out as the imposter’s smile morphed into a wide psychotic grin. Gods, he never wanted to see the real Minato go loco if he was going to be anything like this.

“This is the end.” The thing purred sultrily in Minato’s voice behind him and hot blood splattered onto the white sands. Naruto gasped, his head starting to spin as he stared in disbelief at the arm that protruded from his chest. He was too numb to feel anything; only a faint nausea as he recognised his beating heart in the thing’s hand. He barely felt a brush of lips against his neck as he was pulled closer to the body behind him. His vision was going black…

“You’re mine.”

  


* * *

  


Naruto woke up with a splitting migraine. Feeling the urge to vomit, he dashed to the bathroom and retched into the toilet bowl barely in time. Even without looking, he knew that Minato had followed him into the bathroom as he heard his hurried footsteps.

“You alright? Do you need to see a doctor?” Minato asked in concern. Naruto shakily got up and moved to the sink to rinse his mouth out. He replied tiredly, “I’ll be fine. Just get me some aspirin and I’ll be fine in a short while. You know that I’m made of hardy stuff.”

“...alright. If you say so.” Minato reached out to brush his cheek. Naruto involuntarily stepped backwards, turning away from Minato.

“Naruto…? Are you really alright?”

“Yeah. Can you get me the aspirin now please?” He quickly replied, trying to cover up his reflex. In the dim light, Minato’s eyes looked almost black and for some reason, he had been utterly frightened of him. Thankfully, the momentary fear only lasted for a split second and Minato didn’t seem to notice his lapse. With a slow nod, he stepped out of the bathroom to get the medicine and Naruto slid down to the floor, feeling incredibly exhausted.

“I’m going crazy…”

  


* * *

  


“Where’s that scroll?!” Kushina shouted as she rummaged through the pile of scrolls on the floor, trying to find the scroll with Minato’s writing in it. She had nearly forgotten all about it until she read one of the other sealing scrolls on a whim. Even if she might no longer be with Minato or that he was now very different, it did not mean that the long years she had been with him were useless. She had some insight into how his mind worked.

Kushina now suspected that Minato had threatened her in the library because he had something to hide from her. Whatever the secret was, the missing scroll must have the answer. Growing increasingly frustrated as the pile of rejected scrolls grew larger, she finally realised, “Goddamnit, it’s not here! That bastard must have replaced it with another scroll!”

Kushina glared at the offending scroll that she definitely hadn’t picked off the shelves before tossing it onto the rest of the scrolls. She was going to find out Minato’s secret no matter what! Especially if it concerned her and Kyuubi – as soon as she got the chance, she was going to kick Minato’s ass for threatening her.

* * *

  


Due to Tsunade’s medical reforms during Sandaime’s time, the Konoha General Hospital kept a blood bank of all active shinobi in separate tubes. With advanced technology and medical techniques, they could artificially reproduce as much of a shinobi’s blood as long as they had a viable sample on hand. It significantly reduced the risks of rejection and time wastage in finding a viable donor match.

Minato knew that Naruto’s blood sample was already in the bank (long story) and it was straightforward requesting a DNA analysis of his blood. It was not an unusual request as there were often cases where shinobi might have children outside of Konoha. To ensure that the children were not sleeper agents, thorough background checks were performed including DNA analysis. It would take them about three days to finish the analysis. The reports were kept strictly confidential and could only be accessed by authorised personnel and the clients.

“Hokage-sama, your signature please. We need proper authorisation.” The nurse held out a clipboard with a form on it. She passed him a pen. Minato smiled charmingly at her and was briefly amused to see her blush. When he was about to sign the form, he was suddenly gripped by apprehension. Did he really want to know the results of the DNA analysis? He had the strangest feeling that he might not like the results. Minato frowned. It had been ages since he felt this uneasy.

“Sir…? Your signature please.”

The nurse’s voice broke his moment of indecision. Briefly closing his eyes, Minato shook himself out of his reverie and firmly signed the form; “I expect a report as soon as possible. Do this with utmost discretion.”

“Of course, Hokage-sama.”

“Thank you.”

  


* * *

  


Not giving up, Kushina relied on her memory to write down as much as she could recall of Minato’s notes in the missing scroll. In the end, there were naturally many blanks but two keywords stood out; “Heaven Seal” and “bonding”. Tilting her head sideways to look at the words, Kushina tried to figure out what they were referring to. Obviously, the Heaven Seal or some variation of it; was being used to bound something. But what was the Heaven Seal and its purpose? What was being bound by this seal? Why was Minato using this seal and for what purpose?

Narrowing her eyes in thought, Kushina intuited that whatever it was, it was a really big secret that was so important that Minato would kill to protect it. Despite the threat, she was determined to find out what it was and if need be, put a stop to it. She raised her hand to look at the engagement ring on her finger and said, “I wonder why I wore that for so long…”

With a bittersweet smile, Kushina gently took off the ring and kept it neatly in a box. As she secreted the box away in her drawer, she brushed the velveteen surface with a bittersweet smile, “Goodbye, Minato. Our halcyon days are over for good.”

  


* * *

  


It was quite a pleasant day to be out doing missions, training or what have you but frankly, Naruto was too tired for that. Prolonged lack of sleep would do that to anyone even if you were an ex-jinchuuriki with Kage-levels of stamina. All he wanted to do was to take a nice, long and untroubled nap without nightmares which he couldn’t even remember.

Nostalgia took him to Training Area 7, which looked exactly the same as the other Training Area 7 in his original dimension. He wistfully smiled as he took in the familiar surroundings before finally spotting an ideal spot for a nap.

He deftly climbed up the large tree and finally stretched out on the huge, wide branch with a content sigh. The sunlight was mostly blocked out by the thick canopy and it was cool inside the tree’s shadow. It was a good thing that Konoha had so many of such large trees around. With a yawn, Naruto drifted off to sleep to the sound of rustling leaves around him.

  


* * *

  


A familiar presence caused Naruto to quickly wake from his slumber. With a glance, he surmised that he must have slept for at least two hours judging from the golden quality of the late afternoon sun. He looked in the direction of the presence and was not surprised to see that it was Uzumaki Kushina. She looked rather huffy and was venting her frustrations on the hapless wooden post.

Naruto debated whether he should greet her or sneak away; he still couldn’t face her comfortably especially considering his situation. It was already awkward being in someone’s presence knowing that you were banging his/her ex. In his case, it was infinitely more so when you considered that (A) that Kushina was his biological mother, (B) he was banging her ex-fiancee and (C) her ex-fiancee was also his biological father. Sometimes, Naruto really wished that he wasn’t related to them at all just so he could avoid all the heartache and headaches.

A ferocious yell from Kushina and a loud crack signalled the demise of the wooden post as it splintered beneath her fist. Naruto gulped nervously as he realised that she was in a really bad mood (he would have been blind to miss the familiar angry glint in her eyes and her chakra virulently whipping around her in chains). Right, sneaking away it was!

Moving as stealthily as he could, he sidled down the tree and sneaked away from the field. Then Murphy’s Law struck in the form of a loose flying piece of wood that hit Naruto solidly in the back of his head.

“OW!”

His head ringing from the blow, Naruto staggered as he clutched his head. Aghast, Kushina rushed over in the direction of the shout she had heard. She hadn’t expected the wood to fly so far or that there would be someone else in the same field as well.

“Oh my god, are you okay?! I didn’t realise the wood would fly so far… Is that you, Naruto?!” Kushina exclaimed in surprise as she finally recognised him. It had been a long while since the last time they met. The ringing in his head finally passing, Naruto hid his nervousness behind a smile.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine in a couple of hours. How have you been?”

“Gosh, it’s really been a while! It’s great to see you, Naruto!” Kushina grinned widely, genuinely happy to see him. Slinging her arm around his shoulder, she declared, “Let me treat you to tea in apology for accidentally hitting you! I want to catch up with you and find out what you’ve been doing all this while.”

Naruto didn’t have the heart in him to say no to Kushina’s offer despite his desire to escape. He didn’t want to see her disappointed face. It should be alright to spend a few hours with her as long as he didn’t mention anything. With a faint answering smile, he replied, “Sure, it sounds like fun. I’ll like to also know what you’ve been doing lately, Kushina-chan.”

  


* * *

  


“How was your day?” Minato asked as he lounged on the sofa in the living room of the apartment he shared with Naruto. He had changed into casual clothes, taking the opportunity to relax in his home. Naruto was sitting cross-legged on the floor, cleaning and sharpening his weapons. Not looking up from his kunai that he was carefully cleaning, he replied, “It was fine. Nothing much happened… other than an unexpected encounter with Kushina. It was nice catching up with her even if it was a bit awkward...”

Minato stilled at the mention of his former fiancée. Naruto met Kushina…? He didn’t like the possible implications of this occurrence. Thankfully, Naruto didn’t notice his sudden unease and continued, “You know, we’ve already been together for almost a year…and I still don’t quite understand why you left Kushina for me. She’s a really nice person.”

Minato chuckled and pulled Naruto closer to give him an upside down kiss before replying, “Why? It’s because she isn’t the right person for me. You are.”

“Still… I just can’t understand how you could leave your fiancée of three years whom you knew for almost your entire life for someone you’ve only known for three years…” Naruto looked pensive as he quietly replied.

In reponse, Minato tugged him into his lap to kiss him deeply and was gratified when Naruto melted into his embrace. Before things went too far, he broke off the kiss and said as he looked into Naruto’s eyes, “There. This is your answer. I love you. It’s simple as that.”

Naruto blinked as he slowly comprehended his words and he blushed spectacularly red. He stammered, “O-oh…really?”

Pressing their foreheads together, Minato smiled slowly, “Yes. Really.”

Naruto shyly smiled back, his eyes bright with love.


	6. Tenebroso 6

# Tenebroso 6

It was a cool morning on the third day, the air slightly damp from the previous night’s rain. There was a crisp and clean quality to the pale morning light that filtered into their bedroom through the window curtains. Minato reluctantly got up from their bed, unwilling to leave the warmth of the blankets and Naruto who remained soundly asleep, a rare fortunate event in the recent light of his inexplicable nightmares that frequently kept him up.

Finished dressing up in his Hokage robes, he smiled fondly at the sight of Naruto sleeping so peacefully in their bed. It was almost nostalgic and at the same time, an entirely new experience. It seemed like a lifetime ago when he was with Kushina and had looked at her fondly in the same way he was doing now. He was tempted to kiss him awake but he did not want to disturb Naruto’s sleep so he merely brushed his whiskered cheek.

“I’ll see you later. Sleep well, Naruto.”

With a soft click of the door closing, Minato was gone.

  


* * *

  


A beige envelope with the Konoha General Hospital logo, a leaf swirl in the center of a red cross, was on his desk. Minato took it and was surprised to find that he was trembling slightly. Was it from excitement or apprehension? He swallowed as he took his kunai to cut open the envelope. Employing unusual care, he gently slid the thin papers out. Finally holding the report in his hands, Minato took a deep breath before reading.

 _Ah._

So, Naruto was indeed an Uzumaki. Minato felt his lips turn up into a smile. How fortuitous and ironic. Deciding that he didn’t need to read the rest of the report, he was about to burn it when he caught sight of his own name in the report. Huh, why was his name in there? Intrigued, Minato read the report once again with a keen eye.

“…What’s this? The DNA results show that I’m actually related to Naruto…? That half of his DNA is a 99.5% match with mine and the other half is a match with Kushina’s… which means that…”

Minato’s eyes widened in disbelief and an ugly twisting sensation was in the pit of his belly. Feeling a chill settle on him, he whispered the damning words, “Naruto’s Kushina’s and my _son_?!”

 _Impossible._

Naruto was only a year younger than him. How he could have fathered a child as a one-year old baby? He was also pretty sure that Kushina had never been pregnant when he was with her – she could not become pregnant without running great risk to herself and Konoha as Kyuubi would attempt to break free when she gave birth. Could it have been an error in the test? Was it a very poor and tasteless joke on the hospital staff’s part? (If it was, he was not amused.)

But no, the tests were practically infallible with all the rigorous screening and stringent regulations put in place by Tsunade. The results were impossible to tamper with. Even so, they were completely ludicrous – perhaps, they had resulted from one of those exceedingly rare faulty tests, which did sometimes happen despite all precautions. You just couldn’t go against the laws of nature and time; just how the hell would he have fathered a child with Kushina, who was only one younger than him?! He didn’t even like Kushina that much anymore.

…Laws of nature and time being broken. Oh. No. No. _No_ , it was not just possible. Time-travel was mere fantasy, crackpot theories that could never exist! But then again, he was already abusing the space/time fabric with his Hiraishin jutsu – why not time-travel or alternate dimension hopping? Minato made a strangled noise in the back of his throat as he vehemently tried to deny what his overactive mind was coming up with. But it was already too late, the seed of poisonous doubt planting itself.

It was as though the blinds had been removed from his eyes. He could not help but see just how much Naruto really resembled Kushina and himself now. How had he not noticed that they had the same eyes, albeit with different colours? Or that Naruto had her facial structure? And not to mention the blond hair and blue eyes that must have come from himself… Was it really possible that Naruto was his and her son from an alternate reality?

 _…If I did have a son…I would probably have picked **Naruto** as his name._

In silence, Minato folded the report neatly and with barely a moment’s hesitation, he ripped it into shreds with vehemence. He set the new confetti on fire for good measure. He would have to erase the hospital records in due turn. A low weak laugh escaped his mouth as he slowly slumped in his seat, covering his eyes. Indeed, ignorance was bliss.

  


* * *

  


It was fortunate for Kushina that Minato was so distracted by his new revelation, for at the same time, she was breaking into the Hokage Tower’s basement that also served as a special library that could only be accessed by the Hokage and authorized personnel. Good thing that she was quite capable at unraveling the seal wards just enough to let her in without tripping any alarms. Thanks to the time spent at Mito-hime’s side as a young child preparing for her duty as the next jinchuuriki, she was also quite familiar with the place.

The library was dark and smelled musty, the odour of aging paper and ink mixing with the faint woody scent. Flicking on her torchlight, she carefully crept through the narrow aisles, her keen eyes scanning the labels for the information she was looking for.

“…Yes, this is it!”

With a triumphant grin, Kushina faced the correct shelf and ran her fingers across the book spines, dislodging dust. Angling her torchlight to get better lighting, she noticed that one of the books was noticeably cleaner and less dusty than the rest on the shelf. Grinning, she gently took the book with a quiet “Jackpot!”

The book she now held in her hands was the most complete record of fuinjutsu in Konoha. It not only contained Konoha’s collection of seals; it also stored a wide variety of seals from other countries including even Snow Country’s unique energy-generating seals. As such, this book was an extremely rare and precious treasure considering the rarity of fuinjutsu experts and was thus stored carefully in the Hokage Library. Hopefully, she should be able to find out what the Heaven Seal was, or at the very least, deduce some new clues.

Just as stealthily as she came in, Kushina carefully left the place with her new acquisition, restoring the seals as she went. It was common sense and procedure not to leave your traces behind – an ingrained shinobi instinct as well as her extensive pranking experience coming into play. Her break-in would not be discovered for quite a while to come, most likely never – the book would be back on its shelf in time for the next routine check.

Kushina grinned smugly to herself in satisfaction.

  


* * *

  


While the fact that Naruto was his biological son was incontrovertible, it was also just as undeniable that they had been intimate several times over. Minato surprisingly, didn’t regret it one bit, not even the slightest as soon as he got over his initial immense shock and dismay. So what if they were related by blood? As far as he was concerned, it didn’t change a single thing about he felt about Naruto and their relationship. To confess though, he still couldn’t wrap his mind around the concept that he’d had actually married Kushina in another reality and subsequently had Naruto.

In some ways, he actually felt closer to Naruto now, knowing that they were biologically related. They were not only connected emotionally but in blood as well. It was oddly reassuring – an emotional bond could be broken like his relationship with Kushina had been but a blood bond could never be severed. It also explained why he had felt such a strong and inexplicable connection to the young man, as though he had been waiting all his life just to meet him. (Well, he supposed that the other him had indeed been waiting for the birth of his son.) Minato felt his lips rise into a faint wry smile at the thought. He also pondered how and why Naruto might have ended up here in his reality.

Recalling Naruto’s grievously injured state when he found him unconscious in Kusa the first time they met, never failed to upset him but this time, he was even more upset – someone had aimed to kill Naruto who was not only his lover but of his flesh and blood. If he ever got the chance to meet the perpetrator, he would definitely give him a slow and painful death.

Feeling considerably calmer after all those hours of brooding, Minato decided to take the day off. He was going to speak with Naruto about the truth. He needed to reaffirm that his feelings weren’t a lie caused by genetics.

After leaving a note behind on his desk for his secretary, Minato jumped from his window. Gracefully flipping over in the air to land on the nearest roof, he immediately blurred into motion, appearing like a yellow streak to any observer.

  


* * *

  


Naruto was quite surprised when Minato slammed the door open, his chest heaving with exertion. He was in the middle of drying the dishes and had been planning to go to the office to collect a mission scroll afterwards. Quickly putting the wet plate on the rack and tossing the towel on the kitchen table, he asked in concern, “Hey, what’s wrong? It’s not even noon yet.”

Naruto never expected to hear the words from Minato, “You are my biological son, aren’t you?”

His heart stuttered. How had Minato found out?! He had to salvage the situation as quickly as possible, anxiety making his pulse speed up. God, what if Minato was totally disgusted and angry with him and wanted to break up? He didn’t think that he could handle it – he would be so lost and alone. With a false laugh, Naruto managed an indulgent smile and said, “Don’t be silly. How could I be your son? That’s impossible.”

Naruto turned back to the sink to continue his chores but Minato took the opportunity to push him into the kitchen counter, pressing himself to his back and pushing his hands flat on the counter surface. He stiffened in shock and his pulse jumped. He looked at Minato’s distorted reflection in the metal surface of the sink and demanded querulously, “What are you doing? Let me go.”

“…Naruto. I already know the truth. The DNA tests don’t lie. You are Kushina’s and my son from another reality, right?” Minato whispered into his ear. Naruto schooled his face into a blank poker face and tersely replied, “But the DNA tests aren’t 100% correct. It must be a fluke. I don’t think it’s a very funny joke you’re playing on me, Minato.”

Minato only chuckled and he started rubbing small circles into Naruto’s wrists with his thumbs. He replied, “Nice try. That’s what I also thought too at first. But there were too many other factors that supported the outlandish truth. One, your blood and mine are of the same type. Two, you use Wind-natured chakra, the same chakra type as me, which also happens to be quite rare in Fire Country. Elemental affinities also tend to be passed down in the family. Three…you look just like Kushina and me.”

Naruto remained silent but Minato could tell that his words had struck home as he was trembling in his grasp. He was frightened. It was a wonder that Naruto wasn’t trying to break free now. Releasing Naruto’s wrists and placing his hands on slim hips in front of him, Minato kissed the back of Naruto’s neck, feeling him still in shock. He declared, “But it doesn’t matter. You’re Naruto, the man whom I love dearly, whether or not we are blood relatives.”

Minato was telling the truth. Holding Naruto in his arms, he still felt the strong desire to keep him close, to kiss his lips and touch his body. He still wanted Naruto even if they were biologically father and son. If anything, the fact they were related only made him keener to have Naruto – the thought that Naruto wouldn’t exist if he (to be more precise, the other him) had not been the father gave him a thrill. It was like he owned Naruto’s very existence. Naruto, of his flesh, bone and blood, was _his_ in every conceivable way.

  


* * *

  


Naruto barely comprehended what Minato had just said. He was aware that they were related and he…didn’t care? He still loved him? He would have thought he was dreaming if not for the warm lips on his neck and the pressure of the body behind him. Placing his hands on Minato’s hands, he softly asked, “Really…? You already know the truth and you still want _me_?”

Minato didn’t give him a verbal response, choosing to thoroughly kiss the doubts out of him. When they finally broke for air, Naruto was grinning stupidly, a relieved glee flooding through him. He also felt lighter, the burden of hiding such a big secret finally gone. He felt like exactly like the time he had successfully mastered and completed the Rasengan or the time he had mastered the Sage form or better still, when he had defeated Kyuubi. He felt like he could do anything.

With a sly glint in his eye, he smiled at Minato, “So, do you have the rest of the day off?”

  



	7. Tenebroso 7

#    
Tenebroso 7   


Kushina gently prised open the thin and stiff pages of the book. Skipping straight to the Konoha section, she started searching for any mention of the Heaven Seal. True to her expectations, the Heaven Seal was mentioned in it. Unfortunately, it was only in passing with only the inventor’s name attached to it. She was intrigued by the fact that the inventor of the seal had been an Uzumaki and that it had been invented pre-Konoha.

“Argh. This is a total dead-end!” Kushina groaned and planted her forehead on the table, the small impact causing the table lamp to bounce a little. The light wobbled and briefly highlighted a small mark in the margin. Raising her eyebrows in interest, she peered closer at the mark – it was so faded and deep in the margin that it was almost swallowed by shadow. It looked like a snake.

“Huh. Isn’t that supposed to be Orochimaru’s symbol…? Did this book belong to him?” Kushina muttered as she flipped back to the front page, looking for any other sign that it might have belonged to the Snake Sennin. A faded calligraphic script on the lower right corner proclaimed it as Orochimaru’s property – damn, how had she missed that all this time? Oh right, she’d never been one for details.

It was too bad that Orochimaru was now a rogue-nin and couldn’t be contacted for questions. Kushina would have to continue her research into the “Heaven Seal” on her own. If she wanted answers from Orochimaru, she would have to look into his research notes (Orochimaru was still famous, or rather, infamous as a genius scientist). But that would be even harder than breaking into the Hokage Tower’s basement as they’d been confiscated when Sandaime discovered his illegal and unethical experiments. She had completely no idea where they might be or if they even existed anymore. It was downright depressing.

“Well! At least, I learned something new.”

  


* * *

  


Mirrors surrounded him everywhere, his reflection splintered into infinity around him. There were no chinks between these mirrors that he could escape through. It was quite disorientating as he carefully walked through the labyrinth, never quite sure of where to turn as his eyes struggled with the optical illusions. Finally, Naruto closed his eyes to rely on his sixth sense, boldly stepping forward.

Miraculously, he didn’t walk into any mirrors and breaking them in the process; glass shards were painfully difficult to extract from your skin after all. It was though the mirrors were only an optical illusion but yet, when he opened his eyes, he could actually touch the cool glass surfaces of the mirrors. As Naruto proceeded down the long corridor of mirrors, he thought he saw his reflection move of its own accord from the corner of his eye but when he quickly looked at it directly, it remained still; its movements dictated by his own.

Then he finally hit a dead end. When he looked behind him, it was all complete darkness, save for a plain mirror in front of him. It was tarnished with suspicious dark brown stains and cracked, distorting his reflection in grotesque ways. Somehow, he felt like he’d seen this before. Suddenly, his reflection moved, banging his hands against the inside of the mirror and stared at him with pleading eyes. He was shouting but no sound could be heard. Nevertheless, he could read his lips as he demanded, _“Let me OUT!”_

Bewildered by what he was seeing (himself?), he could only stand and watch his reflection beat his hands bloody on the inside of the mirror, as he silently begged him to set him free. It was frightening and he very much wanted to run away but his feet were rooted to the ground. Before he could make his decision, a new turn of events shocked him.

  


* * *

  


Unexpectedly, the dream Minato appeared beside him. His eyes were completely black and he was wearing an indulgent smile as he looked at Naruto’s reflection which had stilled on seeing him, his face turning pale with fear. He quickly backpedalled away from the mirror’s surface, whispering a mantra of “No” under his breath.

“Minato” turned to look at him and said, “You’ve made it this far. I’m impressed. Well normally, I should dispose of you but I think it’s time for a reward. I’ll give you a show.”

“…What show?” Naruto dreaded the answer, an uneasy fear rising inside him at the very presence of “Minato”. He had unquestionably met this thing before, judging from its familiarity with him, but he couldn’t recall when they might have met before. “Minato” only smirked and amazingly, he stepped through the mirror, his body melting through like liquid. Naruto experimentally pressed his hand to the mirror but found that he was blocked. Then his eyes grew very wide with shock at what was happening inside the mirror.

“Minato” had grabbed his twin and easily forced him into submission, black tendrils emerging from his body to bind his struggling limbs. With a fluid practised motion, he was stripped of his pants before being slammed against the mirror and as Naruto speechlessly watched in horror, “Minato” ruthlessly entered his twin. His twin arched against the mirror, his mouth falling open in a silent scream, his eyes unseeing with agony. A trickle of blood streamed down his naked thigh. Naruto shuddered, feeling incredibly violated and he yelled, “What the HELL are you doing?!”

“Minato” maliciously grinned at him over his twin’s shoulder as he fucked him at a leisurely pace, wringing pained whimpers which thankfully couldn’t be heard as his twin clawed at the mirror weakly. Despite being inside the mirror, his voice could still be heard, “Giving you a show.”

“No! I’m not going to watch you rape him. It feels like you’re raping _me_ even if he’s just a dream figment you made up!”

His twin flinched and “Minato” laughed, actually pausing in his motions. Flattening his twin against the mirror and nuzzling his neck in a parody of the real Minato, he purred, “Oh, you’re wrong. You’re going to watch yourself be fucked by me in the way you’ve always wanted deep inside your soul. You want to be used and defiled, to be dominated wholly. And you’re going to like it. Your lovely twin, right here with me…is also _you_ , an alter-ego, you might say.”

“WHAT?!”

  


* * *

  


His twin/alter-ego moaned, his eyes closing in abject humiliation. Naruto felt his cheeks burn with a mixture of mortification and rage. If that was the case, he wasn’t going to sit around and allow a faker to- He was about to step forward to break the mirror when black tendrils wrapped around his arms and legs and forced him to sit in a suddenly materialized chair. They were much stronger than they looked.

“Ah no no no, can’t have you breaking things willy nilly. Now be quiet.” At his command, another black tendril slapped over his mouth, stifling his indignant curses. Immobile and having a front row’s seat to the atrocious act performed in front of him, Naruto felt sick. He squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to shut out what he was witnessing and desperately wished that he would wake up soon. Unfortunately, “Minato” had foreseen that and with barely a thought, he enabled all sounds to be heard from within the mirror.

Naruto inhaled sharply as he heard his own voice scream – he never knew that he could scream like that. The obscene wet sounds of flesh hitting flesh were loud and made him want to retch. Ironically, closing his eyes only made the sounds even keener. “Minato” sounded exactly like the real Minato which only made it worse. His voice threaded with steel, ordered him, “Open your eyes, Naruto. Or I’ll make it even more painful than it needs to be for your alter-ego.”

It was only the sound of his alter-ego’s hoarse whimper that forced him to snap his eyes open. He glared at “Minato” with all the angry hate he could summon, invectives itching to spill from his gagged mouth. The imposter only laughed, “Nice fire in your eyes.”

Naruto pointedly kept his eyes fixed on the imposter’s face even as he continued to ravish his alter-ego. “Minato” didn’t seem to mind, keeping their eyes locked together in a challenging gaze as he bit his alter-ego’s neck, drawing out an aroused moan. Both Naruto’s cheeks flushed out of either anger or humiliation.

“Minato” smiled as he slid possessive hands down the trembling flanks of the Naruto with him. The other Naruto in the chair twitched, as the black tendrils echoed his movements. Both Narutos jerked when he wrapped his hand around Naruto’s half-erect cock and stroked it firmly, bringing it to full erection; tendrils sneaking under the other Naruto’s waistband to curl around his cock and squeezed.

“…!!”

  


* * *

  


Naruto’s eyes widened with shock as he felt the black mass molest him, touching him intimately in echo of the imposter’s actions to the other him. His attempts to lurch out of the seat were too easily quelled by the black mass and another black tendril crept up to his neck, forcing him to watch the sordid display when he tried to look away as it tightened threateningly on his throat.

His alter-ego was panting, his face flushed with arousal and humiliation and covered with a sheen of sweat. His eyes were clouded with both pain and pleasure. His hands were bound by black tendrils and pinned above his head to the mirror as “Minato” fucked him from behind with deep and powerful thrusts, pressing him flat against the mirror, forcing the air out of him in wheezes. He was quite a picture of sinful corruption and Naruto felt his cheeks slowly warm up, feeling self-conscious and yet horribly, terribly intrigued and…aroused as he all too easily imagined it happening to him; to be so easily man-handled, dominated completely by the real Minato… No!

He was instantly horrified and disgusted with himself and he bit his inner cheek hard, tasting his own blood. How could he sink so low? Wasn’t it already enough that he was intimate with Minato who was also his _father_? He should be thankful that despite learning the truth, Minato didn’t give a shit. Instead of craving for _more_ , to feed that raw insatiable hunger for _loveattentionfamilybelonging_ , he should be saying no.

“Don’t deny yourself.”

“Minato”’s black eyes shimmered into the dark ocean blue of the real Minato’s eyes and “he” gave him one of those warm smiles that always made him melt like ice-cream in the hot sun. Both Narutos shuddered as the pace became gentler and slower, _loving_. It felt exactly like Minato. His eyes falling shut, Naruto groaned into the gag as the black tendrils caressed him, sending pleasure through his nerves. His twin echoed him, his body arching back against “Minato”, his breaths ragged with pleasure and exertion.

“You want this.”

Unconsciously opening his eyes, Naruto was unable to think clearly, transfixed by the incredible pleasure he was experiencing and the sight in front of him. His eyes hungrily took in the way “Minato” possessively touched his twin, eliciting erotic noises from him. How his twin (his face) looked so beautiful in his ecstasy and a jealous heat burned inside him. He wanted that so bad that he would willingly kill for it. His father, Minato, was precious to him for he was the first to show him love in all its forms.

“Yes. You’re mine. I won’t let you go.”

“Minato” looked at him as he kissed his twin deeply, quickening his pace. Soon, both Narutos were climaxing, their voices melding together in their orgasmic cry. “Minato” came with barely a sound into the barely conscious twin before pulling out of him. He easily caught him before he fell to the ground unconscious and removed the bonds from his wrists. Completing his business, he stepped out of the mirror and sent it back into the darkness. Naruto sagged into the chair, feeling completely worn out, barely noticing the mirror that trapped his twin vanish into the darkness and “Minato” standing before him.

One moment, he was trapped in the chair and the next moment, he was pulled out of the chair and being kissed deeply by Minato’s shadow. Not hesitating, he reciprocated fiercely, lust fuelling his hungry kiss. He _wanted_. Abruptly, the kiss stopped and Naruto growled, irritated at being denied. “Minato” chuckled and affectionately brushed the back of his hand across his whiskered cheek and said, “I wish that you were really mine but you belong to my creator.”

Before Naruto could question him about this “creator”, he was pushed backwards into the darkness and he was falling…

  


* * *

  


When Naruto woke up in bed, he felt better than he had for ages and also really, really _horny_. When he saw Minato sleeping beside him, he didn’t hesitate to crawl on top of him and aggressively kiss him awake. It didn’t take long before Minato woke up and rolled them over to pin him down among the blankets with a bemused smile, “Not that I mind, but what’s up with you, Naruto?”

Naruto licked his lips sensuously and shot Minato a heated look. He rolled his hips upwards against Minato’s and was amused by the startled wide-eyed look he received from him. He purred, “Nothing. I just want to play, _Daddy_.”

Minato choked and actually felt his cheeks turn red. He had no idea what was causing Naruto’s sudden lustful and playful mood but he wasn’t going to complain. He spared a quick glance at the clock and saw that it was still very early with plenty of time to spare. Quickly regaining his equilibrium, he grinned down at Naruto and amusedly said, “Alright, if that’s what you want, _my son._ ”

Naruto grinned sharply.

  



	8. Tenebroso 8

# Tenebroso 8

As the head of the Konoha Military Police Force, Uchiha Fugaku was required to meet the Hokage weekly to ensure smooth relations between the Konoha shinobi forces and the police. It was a chore having to do so when he would rather spend the day with his family, but duty called. Mikoto helped him put on his uniform vest as his two sons ate breakfast at the kitchen table (well, Itachi was eating and Sasuke was splattering milk everywhere on the baby chair with gleeful shouts). Giving his wife a quick peck on the cheek, Fugaku said, “I’ll be back soon.”

“Take care of yourself, dear.” Mikoto smiled as she sent him off. There was a loud smack, clatter and shout behind her. She turned around and ruefully looked at the messy scene before her; Sasuke had somehow managed to upend his bowl of cereal on Itachi, having banged the baby chair too enthusiastically. Mikoto hid a laugh at the dumbfounded expression on Itachi’s face; he was so adorable! Tweaking Sasuke’s nose, she gently admonished him, “Don’t play with your food.”

As Sasuke giggled, still too young to understand her, Mikoto turned to Itachi and suggested, “Why don’t you take a bath before the food dries, Itachi? You can put the clothes in the laundry bag.”

“Yes, mother.” Itachi was sullenly pouting as he trotted off to the shower. Before he left earshot, Mikoto caught him muttering, “I wish that I hadn’t asked for a brother. Sasuke would be so much easier as a _girl_!”

Mikoto couldn’t help but snort in laughter.

  


* * *

  


The meeting was going well but Fugaku was feeling miffed because the Hokage didn’t seem to be fully focused. Damn it, did Minato have to play up the blond ditz stereotype right now? He’d always never liked it whenever Minato pulled it at Academy on the teachers as kids. His blue eyes wide in faux innocence and his young cherubic face (which Kushina often called girly) easily had their teacher, a middle-aged kunoichi twisted around his little finger. Even as young children, Minato had always been very sharp beneath that blond pretty-boy image, secretly laughing at others who underestimated him and thought him a ditz. So no, Fugaku certainly did not appreciate being treated like a moron. Irritated, he slammed his thick folders on the table and barked, “Hokage-sama! Are you paying attention?!” _I’ll fry your ass if you aren’t, Hokage or no._

“Hmm? Oh of course, I was. You were just saying that you’re considering increasing the quota of non-Uchiha in the Military Police, right? In return for letting the Military Police more control over their internal affairs.” Minato directly looked at him for the first time, his blue eyes sharpening with keen intellect. Fugaku restrained the urge to recoil and suppressed the instinctive flare of his Sharingan as the Hokage’s intent attention focused on him like a laser. It was unnerving.

“…Yes. That’s what I was talking about.” Fugaku grudgingly conceded, “My apologies.”

“No, it’s quite alright. I should apologise. I am feeling quite distracted and I don’t think I’ll be able to function well for the rest of today. Shall we cut this meeting short? We can arrange another meeting at your convenience. It’s a great day to have a picnic with your family after all.” Minato genially said as he rose from his chair. Fugaku thought about it and relented with a huff; there wasn’t much else on the agenda that was urgent or really important anyway. He would really like to spend the day with his family. Gathering up his materials, he nodded, “Fine. I’ll let your secretary know of our next appointment.”

“Thank you for coming, Uchiha-san…” Before Fugaku opened the door, Minato continued, “If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get that bracelet from?”

Fugaku looked at the mentioned bracelet which had been given to him by Itachi; his son hadn’t liked the red cloud patterns on the bracelet his female classmates had given him. He never liked the colour red. He shrugged, “Beats me. My son gave it to me when he didn’t want it. Apparently, some girls in his class gave it to him.”

“I see… Your son has good taste. It’s kind of tacky, isn’t it?” Minato commented with a thoughtful frown. Fugaku rolled his eyes, not deigning to voice a thousand come-backs, all of them recycled Kushina’s sound-bites on the Hokage’s “effeminateness”. He only gave a parting shot, “Maybe you should think about having kids yourself, Minato.”

As he left, he never heard Minato laugh at the irony.

  


* * *

  


Minato felt a bit ashamed for failing to pay attention to Fugaku; he’d been incredibly distracted by the little trinket hanging around his wrist, an almost delicate silver bracelet with red cloud beads. There was a nagging familiarity about those motifs that yanked at his mind insistently like healing stitches that had yet to be removed from his flesh. He tried to remember where he might have seen them but his mind grew foggy. He strained hard to reach beyond the fog and for a moment, he saw a flash of red and black in his mind’s eye. Then sharp pain hit him like a brick.

Grunting, Minato quickly pressed his hand to his forehead, drawing on Sage meditation techniques (like his teacher Jiraiya and Naruto, he too had attempted to become a Sage but soon gave it up when he realised that it didn’t fit his style and that he didn’t have the mindset befitting of a Sage) to will away the migraine. Ow, that had hurt like a motherfucker! What was it that he had seen? Why did it make him feel so uncomfortable? Before he could consider an investigation into the mysterious memory, his secretary entered with a pile of documents in her arms and he sighed heavily. Later then. Why, oh why, didn’t anyone tell him that the job came with so much paperwork? He had been far happier as a simple jounin.

  


* * *

  


Hours later, Minato finally placed the last document on the pile of completed work and pushed it aside. With all the miscellaneous data and facts jostling in his head, he completely forgot all about the strange memory and his migraine. It was like he had never experienced them, they having been white-washed away and hidden by fog. He was only left with a faint nagging feeling that he had forgotten something and even then, that feeling was soon forgotten. Rolling his shoulders and neck with cricking noises as bones popped, he came to a realisation.

“I don’t really know Naruto’s past at all... do I?”

It was true. For such a loud person, Naruto surprisingly spoke revealingly little of himself. Minato only knew his birthday 10th October, for god’s sake! In hindsight, he could understand the reason for his secretiveness – he was technically from the future and a carelessly slipped word or action could inadvertently change something important. Not to mention hiding the very controversial fact that they were related. But now, surely, it should be alright to ask.

He was admittedly very curious about Naruto’s past, which ironically, would have been his future. He wanted to know who had been his teacher, genin team-mates and so forth. He…also wanted to know what happened to the other him and the other Kushina. It wasn’t for narcissistic reasons but a morbid fascination. Just what were they like to have produced Naruto? Why had _he_ married _her_? Trailing his fingers thoughtfully over his own smooth cheeks as he recalled the strange whiskers on Naruto’s face, he also wanted to know what had caused those strange marks.

If the other Kushina had also been a jinchuuriki, it would prove beyond question that Naruto was perfect for being the next vessel – he would have been exposed to Kyuubi’s chakra during gestation in the other Kushina’s womb and his whisker marks proved it. Being an Uzumaki himself, he was also granted the unique Uzumaki bloodline of being able to control demons. Then if you went into yin/yang theory, Naruto would also have made a better vessel than Kushina – being a male, he was yang and therefore a perfect counter-balance to Kyuubi’s yin, unlike the female Kushina’s yin. Minato grinned wolfishly; it was really quite perfect, as if it had been all pre-destined.

Then the grin slipped from his face. The question was; would Naruto really want to become a jinchuuriki? Even though it was pragmatic to turn him into the next jinchuuriki, he didn’t want to push such a burden onto him without his consent. He was also deeply concerned that Naruto might not be able to withstand the stress of holding such a powerful and malevolent being inside him – he was already an adult unlike Kushina who had been a young child when she took over from Mito.

How reckless! If not for the shocking revelation of their relationship that gave him pause, Minato would have not stopped to consider the possible risks to Naruto and simply went ahead with sealing Kyuubi in him. Now with the knowledge that Naruto was his sort-of-future-son, he had even more motivation to keep him safe, even from his stupidly impulsive decisions. Naruto deserved the right to have a choice – if he refused, Minato would simply look for another alternative; he could leave Kushina alive but incapacitated. While he could not keep Kyuubi under control, he could definitely keep its container under control.

He was well aware of what would happen to Kushina when Kyuubi was removed from her – she would simply die out of extreme chakra exhaustion. Minato really didn’t feel anything at all at the prospect, not even a twinge of guilt or revulsion. It was as though Kushina was just any other assassination target. If anything, he only felt a bit regretful that he didn’t care about her at all anymore. His first love was gone. Luckily for her, Minato would only implement this plan if she went too far. Watching the clouds, he mused to himself, “Kushina had better watch herself very carefully if she doesn’t want to end up dead or worse...”

  


* * *

  


Naruto was feeling extremely content as he strolled into the jounin lounge, a fact that did not go unnoticed by his colleagues who wolf-whistled and sing-songed, “Someone got laid!”

“At least, I got laid. Did you have a good time with your left hands?” Naruto snarked good-naturedly as he grinned at them. Some of his colleagues were actually parents of his old friends and the others were new faces to him (they had either died on the day he was born in the Kyuubi attack or he was too young to remember them when they died later on in the line of duty.) He especially made it a point to get to know Iruka-sensei’s parents. It still felt a bit strange to be chatting so casually with these people who were his old friends’ parents but it helped a lot that they were so much like his old friends. The apple sure didn’t fall far from the tree. Yamanaka Inoichi with less wrinkles on his face, leaned forward with an eerily familiar gleam in his eyes and eagerly asked, “So, who was she?”

 _Man, Ino and Inoichi are way too alike in their love for gossip._

Trying to imagine Minato as a woman was a mind-breaking effort and made him laugh inside his mind. Taking a seat with them, he made a show of trying to remember the name of the mysterious “lady” or several. He drawled, “I don’t remember actually… they all tend to run together, you know? It’s great being a Kage Bunshin master.”

You could hear a pin drop in the sudden jealous, scandalised and awed silence that fell over the jounin lounge. Naruto took a look around the table and laughed at the dumbfounded/jealous expressions on the men and the scandalised/intrigued expressions on the women. Putting his hands up defensively, he said, “I’m just pulling your legs, you guys. I’m not a playboy and I’m not that perverted!”

“I’d definitely hope so, Naruto-kun.” A familiar voice sweetly said behind him as hands landed on his shoulders. Naruto leaned back to look up at her, hiding his slight nervousness with a smile, “Oh hey, Kushina-chan. You know that I would never cheat on anyone, right?”

Kushina flirtatiously smiled and leaned down, resting her head on top of his. She seductively replied, “Of course, _dear_. You know what I would do to playboys and perverts, right?”

Naruto choked, not expecting that response and he wasn’t alone as the rest of the room gawked at them. Inoichi was wearing a wide grin on his face, “You’re good, Naruto. _Really good_. You actually snagged the ‘Red Habanero’! You beat the Hokage!”

 _Try the other way round, idiot! What’s Kushina’s game?! It’s going to be so awkward if Kushina’s for real… One ‘parent’ is already bad enough, I don’t need two! Man, Minato’s not going to be happy…_

To her credit, Kushina only glared at Inoichi and Naruto was trying not to freak out and blurt out the truth. Then she suddenly grinned and lightly slapped Naruto’s head, “Gotcha! When I heard you bullshitting them, I just couldn’t resist pulling a prank on you guys as well, you included, Naruto!”

“…That was mean, Kushina-chan. You got all my hopes up!” Naruto pouted at her, secretly relieved that it had just only been a prank.

“Sorry. But yeah, so spill, who’s your new girlfriend?” Kushina unrepentantly asked as she sat down beside Naruto, flicking her long red hair over her shoulder. Naruto contained a loud groan; crap, just what had he gotten himself into? How was he going to get out of this mess? The expressions on the people’s faces around the table were noticeably blank, an indication of their eagerness to learn who he was dating. Ninjas were inherently such _big_ gossips. Flinging up his hands in the air, Naruto exclaimed, “Why are you so eager to know who I’m seeing?! Get a life.”

“Actually, we have good reason to be curious, Naruto.” Surprisingly, it was the stoic Aburame Shibi who answered. Naruto snapped his eyes at him. He continued, “Ever since you joined us before the Third Shinobi War with the Yondaime’s vouching, you have never been seen with anyone. You have also shown no indication of being interested in anyone. You’re a very powerful man if albeit…unconventional and your future children would bring strength to Konoha.”

“…Er.”

  


* * *

  


Naruto was lost for words. It was rather shockingly frank, almost rude, but it was vital for the hidden villages to seek the progeny of strong kunoichi and shinobi to replenish and strengthen the village’s forces. Apparently, this militaristic and ruthlessly pragmatic mindset had dwindled down during his time, perhaps as a result of lengthy period of peace Konoha experienced. A quick glance around the table showed that the rest of the people agreed with Shibi, especially the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. His mind was quickly spinning in circles and rambling.

 _…I don’t think it’s possible for two men to have children and besides, there’re all sorts of genetic problems with incest, if you look past all that Bloodline crap. Fuck, what do I say? Do I have to say that I’m asexual?! Or that you’re already looking at the strongest possible combo of the freaking Yellow Flash and the Red Habanero – no wait, that would make it even worse and open a whole new can of trouble I do not need. Fuck._

“…Wow, okay. I’m flattered.” He finally managed. Looking skywards, he thought to himself, _“Okay, time to man up, Naruto. Tell them you’re dating the Yondaime Hokage – it’ll be out sooner or later anyway when the Council starts badgering him about having children like they’re doing to me right now. Best to get it over and done with. It’s not like you have to tell them you’re his sort-of-future-son as well – come on, that’s both stupidly social and career suicide for both Minato and me.”_

Taking a deep breath, Naruto finally looked at everyone at the table, ignoring how everyone else in the lounge was straining to listen, failing to hide their visible interest. “I’m…” He caught a glimpse of Kushina’s curious face and he just couldn’t spit out the entire truth. He just couldn’t. He couldn’t hurt her feelings. He lamely finished, “I’m seeing another guy.”

Dead silence. Then the lounge exploded into a unanimous roar as they finally processed Naruto’s unexpected reply, “YOU’RE GAY?!”

“…I’m bisexual, actually. But yeah, I’m seeing a guy.” Naruto slid down in his chair, wondering if he had made a huge mistake. He also faintly wished that he had a camera with him right now because the expressions on their faces were really _hilarious_. His old friends would have gotten a good chuckle or two.


	9. Tenebroso 9

#  Tenebroso 9

After his big reveal, Naruto was deluged with questions about his secret lover. How long they had been dating, how they’d met, what was his name, etc. He remained stubbornly silent, refusing to answer them, belatedly realising that he might have made a mistake. He also knew that Minato might not be too pleased with his actions; gah, he’d been too impulsive again. After one question too many, his nerves finally couldn’t take it anymore.

Abruptly standing up and silencing the cacophony, he politely excused himself and hastily left the lounge, not meeting Kushina’s eyes. Even as he left the room, he still could feel her gaze on his back like a heavy weight. He was paranoid that she could somehow divine his mind and discover the secret identity of his lover. After all, wasn’t there a common saying that mothers know everything about their children? Would that even apply to her in this reality as well? Naruto wasn’t sure and he wasn’t eager to test the theory.

Thankfully, Kushina didn’t follow him out of the lounge but he wasn’t going to loiter around here for longer than necessary, should she change her mind. He did not feel up to being in her company right now. As Naruto headed for the mission office, he resolved not to think about Kushina and his moral dilemma for the rest of the day. He had much work to do.

  


* * *

  


Kushina stared at the door with her eyebrow arched in a bemused fashion. She’d never known that Naruto was seeing a man, much less _someone else_. It was a somewhat odd experience as like Shibi had said himself, Naruto had never shown an inclination for anyone of either sex in the years she’d known him despite being quite a popular figure due to his deeds during the Third Shinobi War. She was also quite fond of him, seeing him like a little brother she’d never had, inadvertently causing her to form a mental image of him as a chaste virgin (even if he wasn’t a virgin and he was definitely no blushing maiden).

She felt slightly hurt that he hadn’t told her about this new development in his life. Weren’t they bosom friends and pranking allies? She was so curious and wanted to make Naruto spill the beans but the look in his eyes made her refrain. He’d looked like a cornered animal and knowing his fiery temperament (so much like hers), he’d probably have exploded.

As she sat quietly at the table, the eye of the storm amid the noise in the jounin lounge, Kushina wondered just who this mysterious man was, her mind off her newest research project for the first time in weeks. The Heaven Seal could wait – it wasn’t like she could progress further without Orochimaru’s notes (yet).

  


* * *

  


After a very, very long day, Naruto finally collapsed in his bed, exhausted by his repeated escapes from ambushes from his fans (he never knew he had fans!) and nosy people wanting to know whom his mysterious lover was. Goddamn, they were persistent rabid dogs. Had they nothing else better to do than bug Konoha’s resident Sage and Kage Bunshin master? Thank god for Kage Bunshin.

“While it was very amusing to watch your antics, you brought it on yourself, you know.” Minato sat down beside Naruto, his voice filled with amusement. He affectionately carded his hand through Naruto’s hair and Naruto hummed contentedly. That felt nice. Rolling over to peer up at him, he retorted, “Well, let’s see if you’re laughing when they find out who my secret lover is…”

Minato chuckled, “Touche. But I’m the Hokage, not you.”

“Urgh.” Naruto covered his eyes with his arm, conceding his defeat. He was surprised by Minato’s unexpected question that followed next, “Can you tell me about your past?”

That was sooner than expected. But he no longer had to hide and lie about his past now that Minato _knew_. Minato was within his rights to ask after all; he had barely told him anything about his real past. Lowering his arm and opening his eyes again to look at him thoughtfully in silence, he finally said, “Ok, what do you want to know exactly?”

“Everything. Tell me everything.” Minato’s eyes looked at him with firm resolution. Naruto closed his eyes and sighed before sitting upright in one fluid motion. Ruefully rubbing his head, he said with an abashed smile, “It’s going to take a really long time to tell you everything. Where do I start?”

Minato smiled back at him and suggested, “Well, why not start with your birth?”

Urk. It was a perfectly good place to start but already, it was fraught with complications. That was the day when his real father and mother had died and he became the new jinchuuriki. Was he willing enough to tell this Minato, who was his lover, that he was the former container of Kyuubi? Slowly exhaling, he realised that yes, of course, he could. He didn’t have to fear being rejected when Minato had already been with Kushina who was also a jinchuuriki. Further more, he was open-minded enough to accept him despite their biological connection. But even then, it wasn’t easy for him to reveal such a big secret that had been a huge part of his life since the very day he was born. Mentally composing himself, he slowly began to tell Minato his story.

“Alright. As you know, I was born on the 10th of October…”

  


* * *

  


“…and that’s how I ended up here and met you in Kusa. The rest’s history.” Naruto finally finished with a lick of his dry lips and quickly took another sip of water from the glass in his hand. Mid-way through telling Minato his life story, they’d migrated from the bedroom to the kitchen when his throat grew parched so he could drink water without having to constantly interrupt. There was complete silence in the kitchen as Minato stared at him unblinkingly with a contemplative expression. He squirmed, feeling open and vulnerable.

“Whew, that’s quite a lot to take in… But I’m very _impressed_.” Minato finally said with a reassuring smile, his voice tinged with admiration. He shook his head, awed by what Naruto had gone through. It was like an epic legend in one of those old shinobi tales. Reaching out to trace Naruto’s whiskers, he quietly said, “So that’s why you have these marks… It’s quite a revelation that you were Kyuubi’s third jinchuuriki, even if it was not planned.”

Retracting his hand, Minato smiled at Naruto warmly and thanked him, “Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me the truth.” Naruto ducked his head shyly, feeling his cheeks warm in pleased relief. Minato mused, “I hope that I could be as brave as your parents had been. It’s kind of intimidating to know that my alternate self was willing to sacrifice himself to Shinigami…”

“You better not!” Naruto hissed; his eyes suddenly fierce with emotion. He clutched his glass so tightly that it cracked slightly as he heatedly said, “I’ll find a way to bring you back from Shinigami’s clutches just so I can kill you again for being so damn stupidly heroic. I can’t lose you.” He was horrified at the very idea of history repeating itself before him. He couldn’t bear losing both Minato and Kushina for they were his precious close friends and more.

“I understand. But if that’s the only way to protect Konoha, then I’ll do it whether or not you like it. You already know that, don’t you?” Minato replied gently, empathising with Naruto. The younger man recoiled visibly and his eyes were pained as he silently looked down. He knew that Minato was right but it still didn’t ease the old hurt that flared with a vengeance. Naruto swallowed the lump in his throat and croaked, “I know. And I fervently hope that such a day will never come to pass like it did in my reality.”

Minato agreed quietly, “Me too. I’m sorry for upsetting you. But hey, I’m still alive.” Naruto wanly smiled, some of the darkness in his eyes disappearing much to his relief. He didn’t like seeing his lover in such pain because of him. Now that he knew everything about Naruto including the important fact about him being an ex-jinchuuriki, he found himself not thinking about using him as a replacement jinchuuriki for Kushina.

Instead, he was filled with the overwhelming urge to hide Naruto away in a safe place while he pre-emptively eliminated Akatsuki one by one in painful and violent ways. He was also most tempted to reserve the worst for an Uchiha Sasuke who had hurt Naruto so badly with his betrayal. But unfortunately or fortunately, here in this reality; he was only an innocent baby who would never grow up to be the man who betrayed Naruto and Akatsuki did not currently exist (though some of its future members certainly deserved it).

“I’ll do better than _he_ did.” He promised and was gratified by Naruto’s reaction; the darkness in his eyes finally chased away by happy surprise and his smile was radiant.

“I’ve no doubt you will.”

  


* * *

  


Later, while Naruto was washing the slightly cracked glass, Minato hesitantly spoke, “Um, just one thing…” He was drumming the table with his fingers, a sure sign of his nervousness. Intrigued, Naruto half turned to face him as he wiped the glass dry, “Yes?”

“Can I see what you looked like as a teenager?” Minato blurted out, a light pink blush on his cheeks. “I know that it’s a strange request but I’m really curious and I’m having a lot of difficulty picturing it in my head-”

“It’s fine! It’s just a simple matter of using Henge anyway.” Naruto laughed as he put back the glass, amused by the simplicity of the request. Moving his fingers into a ram seal, he asked, “What age?”

“16? That’s when you achieved most of your accomplishments, if I remember correctly.”

“Okay. Here we go!” Naruto briefly disappeared in a cloud of smoke before reappearing as a much shorter adolescent boy dressed in an orange and black long-sleeved jacket with a fish-net shirt underneath and orange pants. His hitai-ate was on his forehead with its long black ends hanging down his back. He also wore the standard ninja sandals, his weapons pouch on his waist and kunai/shuriken holster on his right thigh. Minato stared before saying, “…Orange? Really?”

“Hey, what do you expect when I’ve got parents who were known as the ‘Yellow Flash’ and the ‘Bloody Habanero’?” Minato had to pause to process that unexpected piece of fridge logic. “Besides, orange is such an awesome colour!”

“Fine, I’m not going to argue with you on that.”

Minato shook his head in amusement; trust the unpredictable Naruto to choose such a highly visible colour. Then he took a closer look at Naruto’s face and he was startled by how much he resembled Kushina as a teenager – the lingering roundness of baby fat had softened the lines of his face, bringing out the gentler and feminine curves of Kushina’s chin and cheek-bones in his face. His nose and eyes were exactly like hers in shape. His lips were also full-bodied like hers. The only influence he had on Naruto’s appearance was in his colouring and the masculine cast to his features that prevented him from looking too feminine despite Kushina’s dominant influence. Evidently, this strong resemblance to Kushina would lessen as Naruto grew to adulthood.

Unconsciously touching Naruto’s cheek, Minato murmured, “Wow, you really do look like her…” A small smile flitted across Naruto’s lips, “Many people used to say that to me. It’s kinda ironic that while Kushina-chan’s a really beautiful woman by all accounts, I wasn’t exactly considered the hottest guy around despite my resemblance to her.”

“They are blind.” Minato curtly said. He suddenly noticed something odd about the Henge Naruto was under. He could actually feel his flesh and when he subtly sent out a chakra pulse to disperse the henge, it failed to disappear. The Henge wasn’t an illusion. His eyes widening in amazement, he exclaimed, “Naruto! Your Henge’s actually solid?!”

Naruto looked up at him with an uncomprehending expression before understanding filled his eyes, “Oh yeah, you didn’t know. Yeah, my variation of the Henge’s actually shape-shifting. Thanks to Kyuubi’s influence, I can shape-shift for real and no one can tell the difference. It’s another secret of mine that I haven’t told anyone else except you.”

“Amazing… What about the clothes though? Are they also real?”

“Oh, they’re just illusions on top of the real clothes I’m wearing. Shape-shifting only affects my body.” With a careless shrug of his shoulders, his orange and black outfit melted away to be replaced by his current jounin uniform, now two sizes too large on his smaller frame. Minato’s eyes flicked down to Naruto’s enticingly exposed collar-bone. He was suddenly struck by the large size difference between him and the younger man – even in his true adult form, Naruto was still slightly shorter than him, having inherited Kushina’s petite height. In his current teenaged form, the size difference was much more pronounced; Naruto’s eyes were on the same level as his chin. Minato could probably pin him easily with just one hand right now.

“How long can you stay in shape-shifted form?" Minato’s voice unconsciously dropped to a low register as he intently gazed at Naruto.

“Pretty much how ever long I want it, or when I have chakra exhaustion which rarely happens.” Naruto insouciantly answered as he leant backwards on the sink counter, his pants slipping slightly to reveal his hips. He made no move to pull them back up. Minato followed him, stepping into his personal space and placing his hands on either side of Naruto, trapping him.

“Are there limits to your ability to shapeshift?”

Naruto smiled impishly up at him, “None.”

“Excellent.” Minato purred before swooping down to capture Naruto’s lips in a rough kiss. Naruto moaned throatily, his hands flying up to grip his coat lapels, tilting his head back to accommodate him. When they finally broke for breath, he teasingly said, “You’re such a perv. I’m _underage_ in this form, you know.”

“But you’re actually 23, just one year younger than me, so does it really matter?” Minato whispered into Naruto’s ear before kissing his neck. Naruto questioned, “But if I was actually 16…?”

“That’s a good question.” Minato withdrew slightly to look at Naruto critically, taking in his young and slender appearance. He lacked the powerful muscles that his adult self possessed, lending him a surprisingly vulnerable look. Combined with his large blue child-like eyes and dishevelled clothes currently too large for him that exposed his hips and collar-bone in a most distracting way, he looked like perfect nubile jail-bait. Minato’s stomach twisted with heat.

“…Maybe.” He finally replied honestly. “But only with you. The very idea of touching an underage person makes me ill, but strangely, not with you.”

Naruto eyed him thoughtfully before leaning up to steal a kiss. He smiled, “Hmm, I guess that’s alright then. I trust you and I know that you aren’t a pervert.”

“I’m relieved.” Minato dryly said.

“Well, technically, I’m supposed to be a baby right around this time, if things had gone differently,” Naruto drawled mischievously, “That’s _really_ underage.”

“Urgh! That’s totally repulsive, Naruto! Way to spoil the mood.” Minato made a disgusted face, causing Naruto to throw his head back and laugh. He quickly recovered from his laughter and pressed an apologetic kiss to Minato’s cheek, “Sorry. That was out of line.”

Then with a slow adult smile on his lips that made Minato’s pulse quicken, Naruto slipped his leg in between his legs and rubbed against him sinuously, causing him to gasp. With heavy-lidded eyes and a languid lick of his lips, his sotto voce words practically dripped with sin, “I want you to fuck me.”


	10. Tenebroso 10

#  Tenebroso 10

There were so many things about this entire situation that was downright _depraved_ and so utterly _wrong_ but Minato couldn’t find it in himself to care one whit as he fucked Naruto, doing his damndest to screw him through the mattress. It was a small miracle that they’d managed to stumble back to their bedroom from the kitchen in their haze of lust, shedding their clothes along the short path that felt much longer than it actually was. Any second later, he might have simply taken Naruto either against the wall, on the floor or whatever solid surface was the closest and most convenient, unable to control his desire any further. Not that Naruto would have complained with the way he’d so explicitly given him permission in the kitchen with a seductive purr and adult want in his blue eyes so much like Kushina’s, yet not.

A small part of his brain not consumed by the overwhelming lust and heated pleasure, snidely observed that not only was he bedding his biological son, he was also fucking him in his underage teenaged form. How many rules was he breaking across the Elemental Nations with this positively illegal act? Unbidden, Naruto’s earlier teasing words echoed in his mind, _“…I’m supposed to be a baby right around this time…”_

 _“Cradle-robbing indeed,”_ He absently thought to himself with acerbic humour. _“How very…literal.”_

But then again, who would ever believe that this wanton being with his legs wrapped around his hips and writhing against him, loudly moaning his name like one of Jiraiya’s many heroines (he never read those smutty books but you kind of pick things up via osmosis when they’re bestsellers practically everywhere _and_ your ex-teacher also happened to be the author), was supposed to be his future son?

He had quickly learnt that Naruto was very sensitive in this form, his reactions exactly like a teenager’s when he came like a shot on the first thrust in, much to Naruto’s surprised embarrassment. Thankfully, his recovery time was also like an adolescent’s and he always had plenty of stamina (thanks to his excellent genetics and Kyuubi no doubt), which Minato now ruthlessly exploited, fucking screaming orgasm after orgasm from the vocal pseudo-teen until he could do little more than whimper, almost in tears as he overloaded on the intense sensations raking through his body. The rumpled bed-sheets beneath them were sodden with their sweat and spent seed.

“M-minato…! A-ah… I’m-!”

Naruto tensed, arching against him as his body clenched around Minato. Climaxing for the seventh and final time, a low moan escaped his kiss-swollen red lips as he spilled his warm seed on his stomach and on the sheets. Minato growled as he thrust deep into the slick, hot tight sheath of Naruto’s young, nubile body, easily bending him into two with his larger frame as he leaned forward to mark Naruto’s neck with his teeth again, willing his seal to reappear. Mindless with pleasure, Naruto only gave a shuddery moan as the seal appeared into view.

  


* * *

  


The spiral seal was coloured dark burnt ochre among the fading bruises on Naruto’s tanned skin. It was now much more powerful and complete than the first time he’d placed it on Naruto in the Forest of Death, having evolved over time as Naruto’s devotion to him grew. Its pace of evolution had been relatively slow until recently (perhaps because Naruto hadn’t been completely open about his true origins with him till his accidental discovery). Its growth had been almost exponential afterwards; an indicator of Naruto’s complete trust and devotion.

It was a marvel of fuinjutsu in the sense that its effects were so subtle that not even Minato himself would have been able to tell the difference if he hadn’t been its inventor. The seal suppressed the target’s most recent memories prior to its placement; a necessary function considering the regrettably violent circumstances that would have stressed Naruto more than necessary. It also replaced the real memories with false ones that were indistinguishable from the original ones unless closely examined by a mind-expert like Yamanaka Inoichi.

However, its main function was to encourage positive feelings in Naruto towards him, a ‘push’ if you will, to make him more receptive to his advances. As Naruto’s feelings deepened for him, the seal would also strengthen, cementing Naruto’s affections for him. Unlike Orochimaru’s version, it didn’t corrupt his chakra – why would he ever want to cripple Naruto on purpose? This seal would remain a secret known only to himself and he would never remove it; keeping Naruto at his side for as long as he lived.

Only he himself could remove the seal but he also feared that Kushina might be able to break the seal, given her Uzumaki heritage and fuinjutsu proficiency. After all, she had been his teacher in fuinjutsu… He wasn’t as concerned about Konoha’s other seal master, also his former teacher, Jiraiya. While he was also a possible risk, he was often away from Konoha for his spymaster job and didn’t really know Naruto personally. The same also applied to his predecessor Sarutobi who now kept a distance from Konoha’s affairs, wishing to enjoy his well-earned retirement. Minato’s third and last orgasm finally caught him unaware and he came with a low gasp, burying himself deep into Naruto’s pliant body.

  


* * *

  


Completely fucked out and exhausted (due to no longer being Kyuubi’s jinchuuriki, his teenaged body had far less stamina than before), Naruto trembled as he felt Minato pull out of him, a frisson of pleasure/pain saturating his hypersensitive nerves. He felt Minato’s still warm seed oozing out of him to percolate on the stained bed sheets between his legs. His inner thighs and groin were now wet and slick with copious amounts of semen, both Minato’s and his. He was also sweaty and reeked of sex. All in all, he really needed a shower but his body could barely move and he couldn’t even summon up the necessary mental focus to dispel his transformation.

“if that’s how you’re going to react every time to my teenaged body, I’m going to have to call you a pedo.” Naruto muttered tiredly as he made a herculean effort to move to a clean and dry spot on the bed. As Minato spooned against him, a solid presence against his back, he replied in amusement, “Technically, that would be ephebophilia. Besides, you were the one who asked for it in the first place. You certainly weren’t complaining a short while ago.”

“Oh, screw you.”

Minato chuckled quietly as he stroked Naruto’s side, idly stroking circles into his naked hip, earning a sleepy purr from the young man (who still looked like a teenager). He was surprised a moment later when Naruto caught his hand and pulled it to his front, intertwining his fingers with his. Naruto turned his head to look at him and he said with a sleepy smile, “I love you.”

 _“I love you.” Kushina said with a smile._

Something ugly twisted in Minato’s stomach. Why had he suddenly thought of Kushina? It was completely unexpected and undesired. He hadn’t thought of her in a romantic light for ages. Before he could regain his equilibrium and respond, Naruto had already fallen fast asleep, his breathing rhythm smoothening out into a relaxed and slow pace.

Minato made a small noise of relief under his breath, thankful that Naruto hadn’t noticed his confused hesitation. It would have been difficult to explain that he had suddenly recalled Kushina telling him the exact same words with the same expression on her face. Forcefully ousting the red-haired woman from his mind, he reached down to yank the blankets over Naruto and himself. Then he slept.

  


* * *

  


Kushina knocked on the door of a stately mansion located in the Clan Quarters of Konoha, a sector reserved for the Clan houses of the various clans of Konoha such as the Hyuuga, Aburame, and so on. As an Uzumaki Clan member, she was also entitled to a home in this sector but she had turned it down. What use did she have for a home that would fit hundreds of people, when she was alone and her clan scattered over the Elemental Nations?

She didn’t have to wait for very long. The door opened to reveal a young man in his late thirties. He had a strong resemblance to the former Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen; albeit smooth-shaven. He was also fair and slender like his mother Sarutobi Biwako. He was the elder son, Sarutobi Seishou and if Kushina recalled correctly, he was supposed to be engaged to the daughter of a noble distantly related to the Fire Daimyo.

“Oh hello, Uzumaki-san. Did you want to see my father?” He greeted her with a friendly smile. Kushina nodded. Seishou opened the door wider and stepped aside to let her in. He led her across the large courtyard to the main house. Once inside the house, he took her to the study where his father Sarutobi Hiruzen was. Before Kushina entered the study, she turned to Seishou and said, “Thanks.”

“Glad to be of help, Uzumaki-san. Go on, my father’s waiting for you inside.” Seishou nodded and walked away, disappearing around the corner.

Kushina knocked on the door and heard the former Sandaime Hokage call out, “Please enter, Kushina.”

Obeying, she slid open the door and entered the spacious study. One side of the room’s sliding doors was open, showing a lovely view of inner garden. Kushina saw that Sarutobi was in the middle of doing a calligraphy painting. She sat down opposite him, taking care not to accidentally step on her long hair that pooled on the ground. She composed herself, using the manners that Biwako and Mito-hime had taught her – she would definitely need them, especially when making her unusual and most likely suspicious request to the Sandaime Hokage. Sarutobi’s eyes caught that unusual behavior especially when Kushina was often quite casual with him. He asked, “What is it you want, Kushina?”

Kushina took a deep breath before she prostrated herself, her hands and nose touching the tatami mats. She humbly requested, “Hokage-sama, may I have permission to read Orochimaru’s research notes?”

She didn’t dare to look up when stunned silence fell over the room with the sound of rushing water in the background. Sarutobi finally said, “I’m…surprised that you asked that. Why do you want to read them, knowing what he did to the children?”

Kushina finally got up and looked Sarutobi in the eye. She honestly replied, “I’m researching a seal. From what I’ve learnt so far, it seems to be a derivation of Orochimaru’s seal. I can’t progress further in my research without reading his notes.”

“What seal are you researching?”

Kushina was quite tempted to tell him about the encounter in the library with Minato and her suspicions that Minato had created a seal for some nefarious purpose. But in the end, she held her tongue and replied truthfully, “Actually… I don’t know what seal it is and what its purpose is. I was only made aware of it recently and the fact that it had been based on Orochimaru’s Cursed Heaven Seal. Going by Orochimaru’s horrible research, I can only assume that it was definitely not a benign seal. I strongly believe that I must find a way to neutralize this seal, should I actually come across it in the future.”

Sarutobi hummed thoughtfully as he poured tea for both Kushina and himself. After he took a sip from his hot tea, he said, “That’s very vague. Do you have any proof of this seal’s existence? I cannot just hand Orochimaru’s notes to you on your words alone, considering how dangerous they can be.”

Kushina bit her lip, knowing that Sarutobi was right. But how could she convince him other than telling him about the library encounter with Minato and his obscure notes in a scroll? Sarutobi wouldn’t believe her just like Mikoto and make her situation worse. Damn it. She finally lowered her head and pleaded, “Please. It’s very important. I swear on my honour as an Uzumaki that I will not misuse the notes or let them fall into the wrong hands. Should I fail to keep my promise, I am willing to retire from being Kyuubi’s jinchuuriki.”

Sarutobi almost choked on his tea, not expecting that from Kushina. Discreetly wiping the tea from his chin, he seriously said, “That’s a very serious oath. You are actually willing to lay your life on the line just to read Orochimaru’s notes? You do know what will happen to you if Kyuubi is taken from you, right?”

Kushina looked up at him with a determined expression, “Of course. My research is of paramount importance.”

Sarutobi looked at her for a long moment before he sighed, “…Alright. Since you’re so fixated on this, I’ll let you have the notes for as long as you need on two conditions. First, you are to submit a weekly report on your research to me and secondly, you are to also find a way of breaking Orochimaru’s Cursed Seals which shouldn’t be too different from your personal project. After all, there are some people who still suffer from Orochimaru’s crimes…”

Kushina promptly agreed, knowing of whom he spoke of; Orochimaru’s former apprentice Mitarashi Anko who had been betrayed by her teacher and afflicted with a curse seal. She felt sorry for the young girl who had been so terribly betrayed and hurt. She thanked Sarutobi gratefully, “Thank you so much, Hokage-sama. I will not let you down!”

  


* * *

  


When Kushina finally had to leave after drinking several pots of tea and a few games of shogi with her grandfather figure as the sky turned golden in dusk, Sarutobi sprung a loaded question on her, “Are you ever going to make up with Minato again? It’s been a long time…”

Against her will and fierce promise to forget about Minato, Kushina’s heart squeezed painfully and her eyes grew moist. Hastily looking away from the former Hokage, she managed to keep the quavering out of her voice as she replied, “Never. The red string’s been broken.”

Then she fled the Sarutobi estate with a shunshin. The second Kushina reached her apartment _(so empty with her only)_ , she saw herself in the mirror with her long red hair that reached all the way down to the back of her legs.

 _With eyes as blue as the sky and hair as yellow as the sun, Minato’s smile dazzled her as he said, “I noticed your beautiful hair right away.”_

She snarled at her reflection, sounding like the demon sealed in her belly. Without hesitation, she grabbed a kunai and sliced her hair off, scattering crimson tresses to the floor. Minato and she were over and what reason did she have to keep her long hair anymore? It was a hindrance and a risk as a ninja and she had never liked her hair in the first place!

Finally, her long hair was on the floor, looking disturbingly like pools of blood and the reflection now showed an unfamiliar woman with a messy short bob and tear-streaked green eyes. Brushing her hand through her hair, Kushina couldn’t help but giggle wetly at the funny sight she made and the inevitable reactions of everyone in Konoha who would see her tomorrow.

“I wonder what Mikoto’ll think of my new haircut.”


	11. Tenebroso 11

  


# Tenebroso 11

  


As the wife of Uchiha Clan Head and its matriarch, Uchiha Mikoto was the epitome of a refined and dignified lady. Before she became the matriarch and retired from shinobi life, she had been a special jounin highly skilled in kenjutsu but even as a kunoichi, she had always been composed and graceful – which her elder son Itachi had evidently inherited. But right now, she looked completely undignified with her mouth open and her eyes wide in shock. An observer would have noted that she looked like a stunned fish, an unflattering comparison which she would not have appreciated. Opening and closing her mouth as she struggled to comprehend what she was seeing, Mikoto finally shrieked, “YOUR HAIR!”

“Oh boy…” Kushina sheepishly fiddled with her hair, making it even more of a mess. Mikoto stared at her best friend with a blank expression as she took in her new appearance. Kushina had dressed like a civilian today in a pair of beige capri pants and a blue sleeveless blouse with a mandarin collar. But her hair…!

Instead of being a magnificent long mane of crimson (Mikoto sometimes wished in the secret depths of her heart that her hair wasn’t such a common pitch-black but a glorious red like hers), it was now a short scraggly nest that looked like it was on fire. It looked as though someone had simply taken a knife and haphazardly slashed away at Kushina’s hair (which had happened by Kushina’s hand). It was a very queer sight and probably the first time ever in the years she had known Kushina that she saw her friend with short hair. Even back in Academy, she’d always had long hair. In a disbelieving tone, Mikoto repeated herself at a more reasonable volume, “Your hair.”

“Yeah, I felt like I needed a change…” Kushina nonchalantly replied as she sat down opposite Mikoto. Mikoto blinked a few times, frozen like a statue before she exploded to life. She vehemently ranted, “This will not do! I’ll bet my wakizashi that you simply took a kunai and just cut your hair off without even looking into a mirror! Your hair is a COMPLETE MESS! Come, I’ll give you a proper haircut!”

Before Kushina could react, Mikoto had grabbed her wrist and rapidly pulled her along the familiar path to the Uchiha compound and to her home. Her grip was surprisingly strong. Startled and bemused, Kushina looked at her friend’s manic expression and decided that discretion was the better part of valour for now. When Mikoto got into her rare passionate moods, not even the stodgy Uchiha Elders could stand up to her for fear of getting a few important bits cut off. She should have expected this to happen...

  


* * *

  


“There, isn’t this better?” Mikoto smiled in satisfaction as she held up a mirror for Kushina to see her hair. Kushina’s hand automatically went up to touch her hair but she refrained at the last moment, afraid to mess up her friend’s hard work. She couldn’t help but smile in pleasure at how good she looked now with her hair no longer an untidy and jagged mess. Instead, Mikoto had combed and trimmed her hair into a fetching chin-length bob that was long in the front and short at the back. It accentuated the heart-shape of her face and showed off her large eyes rather nicely. It also felt good and light, the heavy weight of her long hair now diminished. Kushina finally turned to her friend and grinned, “This is awesome! Thanks, Mikoto-chan.”

Demurely smiling, Mikoto laid down the mirror on the table beside her along with the comb and scissors. Flicking off stray hairs off Kushina’s shoulders, she explained at the same time, “Knowing you, I thought that this would suit you well. It’s low-maintenance and fuss-free. It also doesn’t get in the way of your eyes overly much – if need be, you could always use hair-clips like you usually do. It also shows off your pretty features well.

“Yeah, thanks for that.” Kushina smiled and questioned, “I didn’t know you were such a good hair-dresser! Putting your kenjutsu skills to good use in unorthodox ways, huh? Do you cut your family’s hair?”

“Well, Fugaku doesn’t allow me near his hair, unfortunately. He says that he’s afraid that my hand might…slip. Silly him, why would I ever be so careless?” Mikoto sighed in mock dismay, putting her hand to her cheek. Seeing through her friend’s act, Kushina cackled like a witch, “Ooooh, nasty. You’re still the same old Kenjutsu Demon!”

In answer, Mikoto smiled back with a devilish glint in her eyes that would have made her husband very nervous if he saw it despite being the Uchiha Clan Head. Then she became serious once more and said softly, “Well, I’m not going to ask why you cut your hair but I can guess pretty well…”

Kushina only shrugged her shoulders as she said, “Like I said earlier, I needed a change.”

  


* * *

  


When Naruto finally saw Kushina for the first time in days at the Hokage Tower, he almost didn’t recognise her at first. But when he did, he couldn’t help but gape. He had never seen or imagined his future mother with such _short hair_! Sneaking a glance around him, he realised that Kushina’s new hairstyle must have already been old news and he was the last one to know. Not that surprising considering his tendency to avoid Kushina as much as he could. Kushina still hadn’t noticed him, too engrossed in chatting with another kunoichi beside her as they waited in the queue in front of the Missions Office. Naruto took the time to secretly observe her, feeling an odd twinge of melancholic pain.

While Kushina still was very attractive with her new hairdo, it only drove in the fact that she wasn’t the same person he knew as his mother, the phantom with long red hair who had helped him defeat Kyuubi so long ago. The absence of an engagement ring on her finger was also salient. Naruto contained a regretful sigh, knowing that it was futile and a waste of energy to feel upset by the inevitable and irreversible changes he had wrought on this reality with his paradoxical existence. Really, he should have gotten over it the moment his supposed birth did not come to pass – in fact, he should have realised that he had probably changed the course of history from the very moment he violently arrived into this reality.

“Hey, Naruto! You came to collect a mission too?” Kushina cheerfully waved to him, having finally spotted him at the back of the room thanks to his distinctive bright yellow hair. Naruto summoned a friendly smile to his face as he wandered over to join her, jumping queue in the process. The other shinobi grumbled in faint discontent but did not dare to confront him. Giving a lazy salute much like Kakashi-sensei would do in the future _(Maybe. Who knew if the young Kakashi here would grow up to be exactly like his cool and laid-back jounin teacher?)_ , he simply said, “Yo.”

“Don’t act all so cool, Naru-chan! Just answer my question.” Kushina poked him in the middle of his chest hard, causing him to wince. She was much stronger than she looked and she wasn’t in the habit of holding back her strength. Rubbing at his chest, he grumbled, “Don’t call me that. And yes, I’m here to get myself a mission. Gotta earn money, you know.”

“Aaah, capitalism at its finest.” Kushina nodded sagely.

“Yep, how are we going to pay for the ramen otherwise?” Naruto replied solemnly.

“Fantastic, glorious ramen. It would be a real shame if we couldn’t eat any more.” she agreed. Both Kushina and Naruto stared at each other in solemn silence before cracking up into chuckles, momentarily getting the attention of everyone in the room; on recognition of Konoha’s prankster duo, they shivered and hastily looked away, not wishing to know what diabolical plans they were hatching. Ignoring their colleagues, Kushina quickly hugged Naruto and said, “Goodness! It feels like forever since I last saw you. Have you been avoiding me on purpose?”

Naruto suppressed a guilty blush from rising in his cheeks. Thankfully, it had only been a rhetorical question and Kushina quickly engaged him in small talk as they waited their turns to collect their missions. Naruto was really grateful that Minato didn’t personally supervise mission assignments like Sarutobi did; instead he delegated it to an admin chuunin while he focused on more important duties. It would have been awkward to witness the frigid interactions between Minato and Kushina; aside from the obvious need to hide their intimate _(oh so illegal_ ) relationship from her _(not to mention the other deeply controversial secret of their biological relationship at the risk of sounding like a broken record)._

Finally, it was Kushina’s turn to collect her mission. Entering the office and emerging a few minutes later with a B-rank mission scroll, she said to Naruto, “It was lovely chatting with you again.” Then leaning in, she whispered, “Next time, you should tell me who your secret lover is! I’ve got a biiiig bet riding on it.”

“As if I would, you yaoi fangirl! I rue the day I told you and them.” Naruto scowled as he hissed at her, careful not to let any others hear. He had learnt from his mistake well. Kushina only laughed as she walked away. The chuunin in the office finally called out, “Next!”

Naruto sighed in relief and entered the office; possible disaster averted.

  


* * *

  


Minato was not being very productive today, consumed by overwhelming ennui. The words all just seemed to blur together into a monotonous and pedantic streak. The reason for his ennui was rather simple. He had been desk-bound for too long. He desperately craved for action, to feel the heart-pounding thrill of being immersed in combat, to feel blood and sweat flowing. He was a shinobi through and through.

Unfortunately as Hokage, he couldn’t go on any more missions unless it was during war. Minato wasn’t going to deliberately spark a Fourth Shinobi War for such an inane reason and besides, he had already been through one war and found the entire business too bloody, meaningless and fraught with losses – he lost his student Uchiha Obito in the Third Shinobi War. But he was digressing; he would have to make do with sparring. Rubbing his stiff neck, Minato idly ran through his mental list of Konoha nin who could give him a good fight.

The list was dismally small – there were not many people who could counter his speed and out of those who could, they weren’t able to keep up for long. There were currently three viable candidates, namely Sandaime Sarutobi, Jiraiya and Naruto. Given a few more years, Hatake Kakashi and Maito Gai would hopefully be good enough to join the list. But anyway, the first two people on the list weren’t likely to be available for a spar – Sarutobi preferred to relax these days and Jiraiya was abroad once more. Only Naruto could do it. Minato smiled at the memory of numerous spars with the young jounin; they were always unpredictable and it could never be certain whether he or Naruto would be the winner until the last moment.

His smile turned wicked as he recalled one most memorable spar he had won about a year ago. The prize he had seized that day had been the best reward he could ever ask for, other than no paperwork. Minato felt himself getting restless, his chakra sense eagerly reaching out for Naruto unhindered by distance due to their blood connection and his seal. He quickly and forcefully calmed down and restrained his chakra, feeling slightly sheepish for acting like a hormone-driven teenager. Really, there was just something about Naruto that always made him lose control no matter what. Not even Kushina could affect such a response from him with such regularity when they were together.

Minato went to the window and placed his hand on the glass. As he thought of Naruto, he remembered what he had told him of his experiences. His lips pursed into a thin line as his eyes frosted in displeasure as he looked down on the people on the busy streets. At that time, after Naruto had told him his past, contrary to what he had said then, he had actually been very displeased with the alternate Minato. He was so naïve to think that the village would treat Naruto as a hero – there was a reason why few people knew that Kushina was a jinchuuriki and there was a track record of discrimination against jinchuuriki. To needlessly sacrifice himself when there were other options? To him, it didn’t seem like heroism. It was selfishness.

The other Kushina who had been the other Minato’s wife had been dying and was willing to sacrifice herself to seal Kyuubi. There was actually no real need for that fool to use the seal and die along with her but he had done it, abandoning and cursing Naruto in the process. It was so selfish and stupid which was why he had said that he would do better than _him_. Looking at his reflection on the glass and imagining that it was the other Minato; he coldly said to it, “If you weren’t already dead and unreachable, I would have killed you for what you did to Naruto.”


	12. Tenebroso 12

# Tenebroso 12

Lately, Naruto had been sleeping quite well with no nightmares what so ever. He was naturally quite happy about this because the accumulated stress and lack of sleep was affecting him despite his high resilience. He still couldn’t remember what the nightmares had been about but he had noticed that they had stopped some time after Minato’s discovery of his real identity and amazingly, his unconditional acceptance. Everything was still the same as before despite the revelations. 

Happily, Naruto could only conclude that his nightmares might have been his subconscious fears of discovery and rejection manifesting itself. However, he also could not remember having any dreams recently – if anything, Naruto only came up with a void. But it did not worry him much because he usually didn’t recall his dreams and he wasn’t a clairvoyant anyway (despite the fact that his memories could be taken as eerily accurate predictions of the current-future.) 

Minato also had noticed this change and was quite relieved. His lover had been quite concerned for him, having witnessed first-hand how stressful it was for him. He had been on the verge of sending for Tsunade-baachan or even Yamanaka Inoichi to diagnose his ailment. In the worst case scenario, Minato had been prepared to put him on medical leave for an indefinite period of time, not wanting him to risk his life just because he couldn’t stay awake and drop his guard at a crucial moment. 

Naturally, Naruto had been quite offended by the plan and argued furiously with him, not wanting to be de-commissioned for such a pathetic reason when he had gone through worse scenarios with worse circumstances/injuries during the Third War. After all, he was the Fox Sage and he wasn’t going to sit around like a… _housewife_! They managed to come to a compromise: if Naruto’s ailment didn’t get any better, he would be restricted to missions below A-Rank. 

But now, Naruto did not suffer insomnia anymore and he was free to take on whatever missions he liked, no matter the ranking. Grinning ferally, he decided to request for a S-rank mission; it had been a while since he last went on an S-rank and he felt the need to stretch his muscles so to speak. 

And take some real action for the  _future_.

  


* * *

  


In his office, Minato was contemplating the information about Naruto’s past (and his now defunct-future) for the umpteenth time. He was quite concerned about the mysterious organization Akatsuki and Orochimaru, considering how dangerous they had been (will be?). In particular, the mysterious and powerful Uchiha Madara was a source of much concern especially since he had been behind much of the tragedies Konoha (and the world) experienced. 

He couldn’t help but frown as he remembered how Naruto had been almost killed by that monster as a  _newborn baby_ , just mere moments after his birth. As for the alternate Minato and to a lesser extent, the alternate Kushina, he couldn’t really bring himself to care. It had been their choice to basically commit suicide at the expense of Naruto’s wellbeing – goodness, he was supposed to be  _their_  son and there was no way in hell that he would ever take up the role of being Naruto’s father even if he was, well, this reality’s Namikaze Minato. Besides, Naruto was just one year younger than him and it was completely impossible for Minato to view him as a son in any way. (Thankfully, Naruto also didn’t want him to become his father. That would have been immeasurably  _awkward._ )

His thoughts cycled back to Akatsuki once more and he recalled Naruto’s description of their uniform; high-collared black cloaks with red clouds. Minato was slightly surprised by how vividly he could visualize the Akatsuki outfit and the overwhelming sense of familiarity. It was as though he had personally met one of the Akatsuki members but he distinctly recalled never seeing such a person. It was quite hard to miss or forget such a conspicuous outfit after all. 

Straining harder, Minato vaguely recalled that he had a similar reaction to Uchiha Fugaku’s bracelet decorated with red clouds a while back. Funny, he’d almost completely forgotten all about that. He remembered trying to break past the fog in his mind, much like what he was attempting now… Suddenly, there was a flash of red and black in his vision.

When Minato reopened his eyes (when had he closed them?), he was shocked to find himself sprawled on his back staring up at the ceiling. He also had a splitting headache along with a dull throb on the back of his skull – he must have hit his head on the chair in his fall. Wincing as he gingerly got up, Minato was deeply perturbed as he glanced at the clock to find that barely a minute had passed – he had a distinct impression that he’d been unconscious for much, much longer than that. 

Before he even sat down again in his chair, a burst of smoke signaled the arrival of his ANBU bodyguard. Oh, it looked like it was Dog’s shift this time. His mask failed to hide his concerned body language as he queried in monotonous voice, “Hokage-sama, do you need to see a medic?”

Minato ruefully smiled at him and waved off his concern, “I’m fine, Dog. I only have a little bruise and a wounded ego. Just don’t tell anyone that I carelessly tripped on a snag in the carpet in my own office.”

Dog, who was actually his former student Hatake Kakashi, did not seem convinced. He replied, “That was a pretty bad fall, se-sir…”

“I’m fine. Really. Thank you for your concern, Dog but there’s no need for a medic.” Minato firmly said, ending the conversation. Dog stiffened slightly and he bowed his head, “Yes, sir. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Minato instantly felt a twinge of guilt for being so brusque with Kakashi who only had been doing his job and concerned for him. He quickly attempted to mollify him, “Well, I’ll visit the hospital afterwards just in case. You may return to your post now.”  _I’m sorry._

“Yes, sir.” Dog straightened up and he vanished with a small poof of smoke. Finally alone, Minato slowly exhaled in an effort to calm himself. He froze as he felt something wet drip from his nose. Even as he wiped his nose, he already knew what he would see on his wet fingers – blood. He hadn’t had a self-induced nosebleed for years. 

  


* * *

  


“I can’t believe it. This is…” 

Kushina covered her mouth as horror dawned on her in realisation. After three long weeks of deciphering Orochimaru’s notes (and writing reports for Sarutobi’s perusal as agreed, urgh), she had finally found the elusive Cursed Heaven Seal. What she had discovered terrified her. While she didn’t have an advanced understanding of medical ninjutsu or its terminology, her fuinjutsu knowledge was sufficient for her to grasp the gist of Orochimaru’s evil research. 

“This seal should have never existed! It’s slavery and playing god with the human anatomy! Goddamn, Orochimaru’s such a twisted bastard. He must have killed so many people trying to perfect this seal.” Kushina muttered angrily to herself as she reread the whole section once more. Her stomach still turned at the memory of the horrific details that she had read earlier. 

“No wonder, Sarutobi-jiji was so cautious with this. It would be terrible if this fell into the wrong hands… Did he already know about this when he passed the scrolls to me?” Kushina pondered before she shook her head, “Probably yes, considering he’s ‘The Professor’ after all… Then why did he agree to let me read them…?”

Biting her lip in consternation, she recalled the original purpose of getting into Orochimaru’s research – to find out more about Minato’s mysterious seal that was supposedly an improved version of the travesty she now had before her. If the original was this bad, how much worse was Minato’s improved version? She wasn’t that naïve to think that Minato had only developed his seal for academic purposes though he had done so a couple times before. He must definitely have used it at least once. 

“Hrmmnghhh…!” Kushina made an unintelligible frustrated noise as she pulled at her bangs. Though it went against her personal morals, she couldn’t do anything at the moment. It was pure suicide if she simply waltzed up to Minato and ask him point-blank about the seal and who he had used it on. She couldn’t even find out who the victim(s) were. All she could do now, was to break Orochimaru’s seal and reverse-engineer Minato’s seal from what she knew so far and following Minato’s brain-processes. 

“This is going to take  _forever._  Just when I thought the hardest part was deciphering these coded notes…! Gah.” 

Kushina very much wanted to slam her head repeatedly into the desk at the mere thought of having to do so much bookwork, but she needed her precious brain cells for the arduous challenge before her. Her only consolation was that the blonde bastard still did not seem aware of her dissident activity (she better update her anti-surveillance seals soon, come to think of it…)

  


* * *

  


“Hokage-sama, I want an S-rank. Is there one available?” Naruto boldly demanded as he stood in front of Minato’s desk. Minato looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. He suggested, “If you want an S-Rank mission, you should have gone to the Missions Office instead of coming to bother me at work.”

“I did. But they said they didn’t have any. Besides, you  _love_  it when I come to your office to see you. Your office furniture can certainly attest to that.” Naruto teased him mischievously, his eyes sparkling with humour. 

“Brat. I’m  _working_  as your Hokage, you know. You should have more respect for me.” Minato grumbled as he eyeballed the small script of the report in his hands. His earlier headache had thankfully dwindled enough for him to continue his work though it still made it hard to read such small font comfortably. The admin-nins were crazy sadists – whose brilliant idea was it to use font size 10 for the noble cause of saving the trees of Konoha via conserving paper? Font size 12 should be the minimum font size. He certainly felt like slamming a rasengan into his face, if he ever learnt of his identity.

“Ouch, unfair low blow, Minato! Why do you call me a brat when I don’t even call you old man even if I’ve got the right?” Naruto protested dramatically, his arms akimbo. Minato twitched and shot a glare at him, “I’m only 24! You’re just one year younger than me yourself.”  _Good god, don’t call me that._

“But you sure weren’t complaining that  _time_.” Naruto smirked, one of his hands suggestively sliding down his thigh as he canted his hips. Minato sent a quick prayer of thanks to the gods that he had activated the privacy seals at the moment he first detected Naruto’s presence. He certainly did not need his ANBU bodyguards, especially Kakashi, witnessing this. He deadpanned, “That was only because I was too preoccupied having sex with you to really care. But now and in the future, I’ll rather not be called ‘old man’ or any other appellations related to our  _secret_ , even if it’s funny. That’s not who I am.”

Undeterred, Naruto sauntered forward to place his hands on the desk and lean in close to Minato’s face as though he was about to kiss him. He smiled softly, “I know. You are not  _him_  even if you are Namikaze Minato. I’ve long come to terms with that. I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable with my teasing.” 

Minato could only look back at Naruto, unsure of what to say. Then Naruto made a smart-ass comment that rather spoilt the whole mood, “It wasn’t my intention to trigger your premature middle-age crisis.”

 ***WHAP***  "YEOW!"

Minato swiftly smacked Naruto in the face with the paper sheet. Repressing an amused smile, he said, “Nonsense. Now kindly leave me alone, I’ve got work to do.”

“But I still haven’t gotten what I came here for! I want, no, I need an S-Rank!” Naruto whined as he rubbed his stinging nose. 

“Why do you want an S-rank?” Minato finally put away the report, curious to learn why his lover wanted to do such a high-ranking and difficult mission. It was true that there were currently no S-rank missions on the shelf unless he, the Hokage, authorized a new S-rank mission (including other lower ranking missions). 

Naruto straightened up and he replied thoughtfully, “You’ve probably already thought about this, no doubt. I’ve been thinking of tracking the Akatsuki’s and Madara’s whereabouts. Especially Madara, considering how dangerous he could become in a few decades.”

“I’m not letting you go off and fight him on your own!” Minato snapped; horrified by the idea of letting him fight such a powerful shinobi who had been good enough to force the alternate Minato into a corner, even if it was only for a short while. Naruto raised his hand to stop him from speaking further and placated him, “No, I’m not going to fight him. What I’m planning to do is to coordinate with Jiraiya and his information network to find out Madara’s whereabouts and his plans so we can counter-attack without giving him a single chance. I don’t want another repeat of the Moon Eye plan. Once was bad enough.”

Minato leaned back in his seat, relieved that Naruto wasn’t going off half-cocked. Taking Naruto’s hand and squeezing it slightly, he answered, “Well, it brought you to me, so that’s the only good thing about it. But of course, it also means that you might leave me and go someplace where I can’t reach you. I’m not going to let that happen ever.”

“Minato…” Naruto tremulously smiled, touched by his sentiments. Squeezing Minato’s hand back, he said, “I already promised that I would never leave you. I’m never breaking that promise.”

“I know. That’s your nindo, isn’t it?” Minato already knew that Naruto would never leave him, simply because he unknowingly  _couldn’t_.

“So, am I getting that S-Rank?”

“Give me a few days first and we’ll see how it goes. This is going to be big.” Minato thoughtfully replied, his mind already delving into plans and scenarios. 

Naruto closed the short distance between them to kiss him deeply. Responding and appreciative of the kiss (even if he still had work to do, he was still a red-blooded male, thank you very much), Minato reached up to pull his lover down. But unfortunately, Naruto had already withdrawn with a beaming smile, “Thank you, Minato. I’ll see you later. After all, you did say that you had work to do right?”

Without further ado, Naruto opened the window and jumped out of it. Minato looked witheringly at the open window and growled under his breath, “You are such a _tease_.”

Oh yes, Naruto would definitely be paying for his mischief tonight.


	13. Tenebroso 13

# Tenebroso 13

The world was inverted monochrome in stark black and white. The moon was deep crimson and its light stained the surfaces red. The landscape was barren with a few scattered dead trees that cast long and distorted white shadows on the black ground with their skeletal branches. The shadows grasped hungrily at his feet, devouring his own shadow. It was absolutely silent and the air was stagnant and heavy with the smell of acrid decay. 

Minato walked. 

Having no predetermined destination in mind, he simply walked where his feet took him. There was no use trying to force it because he would end up at the same location in the end every time, such was the queer logic of dreamscape. As he walked, he occasionally would come across small relics of his childhood. It could be an old stuffed toy ready to come apart at the seams, a cherished book or even a favourite piece of clothing. He would pause to examine these items that had been dear to him before leaving them behind in the dust, having taken his fill of nostalgia. 

Then he finally came upon a field of grass with a lone tree in the middle. Unlike the other trees he had seen, this tree was alive, its branches thick with leaves and trunk as wide as ten men side by side. Next to the tree, there was a small pond filled with water. The water was stained by the red moonlight such that it resembled blood but it was clean – he’d drank from it before (did he?) He knelt beside the pond, cupped his hands in the water and brought it up to his mouth to drink. Then he looked at his reflection and was startled to see not himself as he was now, but as a young boy. 

The boy smiled at him brightly, the sheer innocence and young naiveté in the smile making him feel old, and oddly, it also reminded him of Naruto. Suddenly, an ill wind blew, shaking the tree. It also caused a ripple on the pond surface. The boy splintered and distorted until all that was left, was his real reflection. He stared, unable to comprehend the vision of his reflection with black eyes with completely no whites. His reflection was smiling too wide, its grin full of malice and sharp teeth. 

Disturbed, he slapped the pond surface to dispel his reflection. But all too quickly, the reflection reformed and it grabbed his wrist before he could move away. It was far stronger than him and way too fast as it pulled itself out of the water. His reflection, or rather, a monster cooed in a voice that echoed eerily, “You aren’t getting away from me easily…”

Minato launched a lightning-quick punch at it but it was easily blocked and the creature was far too close in his personal space with an odd jerky motion almost too quick for the eyes to see. It slammed him painfully against the tree and it continued, “…Because I’m  _you_.”

With that, the monster plunged his hand into his chest and he experienced sheer agony as it began assimilating itself into his flesh, sinking into every single inch of his body. Unable to move, Minato couldn’t stop the process and it was with a helpless horror as the monster violated his mouth with a hard biting kiss that made his lips bleed. The monster winked at him, as it licked its bloodstained lips, “Not bad. Naruto tastes much better though.”

With a final push, the monster was completely in him and he felt like he was going to die. As everything went slowly black, Minato’s last thought was,  _“Why does the moon look similar to the Sharingan…?”_

  


* * *

  


When Minato woke up, he felt oddly detached from his own body and the world. Everything felt unreal, even the sensation of the blankets on his body. He extended his hands before his face and flexed his fingers, feeling curiously blank. His body didn’t feel like it belonged to  _him_. It was as though he was simply an observer placed in a puppet body. He himself did not feel  _real_. The observation distressed him mildly, to say the least. 

The only thing that felt real was Naruto beside him. He was still contentedly asleep and his warmth was like a furnace, piercing through the numbness. Even his bright yellow hair stood out clearly in the seemingly faded and unreal surroundings. Desiring to feel real again, he silently and stealthily crouched over Naruto, careful not to wake him. 

With a fascination that was real, he watched his fingers carefully trace Naruto’s features, feeling the slightly raised surface of his whiskers, the smooth curve of his cheek and the stubborn jawline with clear clarity. His eyelashes were soft and feathery against his fingertips and Naruto sighed contentedly in his sleep, his breath warm against his wrist. He shifted unconsciously, rubbing his body against him. The brief moment of body contact had him reeling with the sheer vividness of the sensations he felt. Naruto was  _warm_  and so very  _real_. 

Naruto’s sigh also had drawn his attention to his lips, so much like a woman’s (Kushina’s) in their fullness and expressiveness instead of a man’s stern and thin lips. Minato rather liked them. Cupping his chin, he observed that they were an inviting pink and felt unexpectedly smooth and soft as he gently touched them with his thumb. Usually, they would be chapped and dry from moisture evaporating in the night without any water to replenish it. His answer finally came in the form of Naruto’s formerly unknown habit of licking his lips in his sleep. 

Heat suffused his body as he felt Naruto’s wet tongue flick at his thumb and the slight bite of his lower teeth against his flesh. Minato was now very awake and aware of Naruto’s inviting vulnerability as he continued to sleep trustingly in his presence. If he so wished, he could so very easily wrap his hand around that lovely neck he liked to mark with love-bites and squeeze, snuffing out Naruto’s life here and there before he even had the chance to fight. Instead, he only wished to reaffirm that he was  _real_  through Naruto’s presence.

Naruto moved again in his sleep, rolling over onto his side. His shirt rode up to reveal his tanned torso with flawlessly smooth skin with the exception of one chest scar. It was one of Minato’s fetishes to see how long he could leave his love marks on Naruto’s body that healed so quickly that a serious kunai wound would be gone within a week without scarring. Now keen  _desire_  filled him to see Naruto unclothed; he wanted to see and touch more of him, knowing that it would help him to feel more real. 

With barely a thought, he had a kunai in his hand and he tested the edge of it on his thumb. It was razor-sharp and finely honed, easily capable of cutting through Naruto’s clothes like butter. It was too difficult otherwise to remove Naruto’s clothes the normal way without waking him up. As he skillfully cut away the fabric without even letting the blade touch Naruto’s skin, he marveled at how Naruto still continued to sleep in his presence like a lamb with a weapon so close to his body. But to be fair, Minato wasn’t exuding killing intent and he was a very careful and skilled ninja. In addition, Naruto completely trusted and loved him to such an extent that the idea he would deliberately hurt Naruto did not even occur to Naruto.

As the last of ruined clothes fell away from Naruto’s reposed body with a whisper, Minato put away the kunai and finally,  _finally_  bent down to claim Naruto’s parted lips, slipping his tongue into his mouth as he kissed him deeply. Naruto still tasted of sweet and minty toothpaste and he responded instinctively in his sleep, parting his lips wider as he kissed back. He murmured huskily,  _“Minato…”_

Taking it as permission from Naruto to continue, Minato took a moment to feast his eyes on the gorgeous Naruto (self-admittedly, it was a bit narcissistic when you considered the fact that he did look similar to him in some ways despite his blatant resemblance to Kushina). Now he felt  _pride_. Pride in the knowledge that this beautiful and skilled man came from his  _blood_  and was completely  _his._  

Then  _lust._  A deep overwhelming carnal lust burned in his blood and he never felt more  _real_  than he did now. His body now truly felt his and real as he reached for the small bottle of oil in the bedside drawer. The smell of musky sandalwood filled his nose and caused his arousal to spike as he opened the bottle and poured the oil into his hand. He was so  _hungry_  and he couldn’t wait to satisfy his craving, wanting to hold on to the sensation of being in the moment with such vivid clarity. 

As he efficiently and thoroughly slicked himself, he bit down on a groan at how  _sensitive_  he was now and it felt so, so, so  _good_  with just his hand. He could easily imagine just how much  _better_  and  _intense_  it would feel when he was in Naruto. Gently rolling Naruto onto his back, he settled down between his legs and hooked them over his hips, enjoying the feel of him under his hands. Naruto looked so inviting like this, splayed open for him like a fine offering. 

He doubted that the even the best Tayu in the Fire Capital’s best pleasure quarers could achieve the same level of contradictory innocent eroticism Naruto effortlessly displayed. Holding Naruto’s hips still, he slowly and carefully penetrated him. Even without the usual preparation beforehand, Naruto’s body was so relaxed in his sleep that it was easy pushing past the initial resistance of his entrance to slide home into him. 

Gods. Minato couldn’t breathe for a moment. Naruto felt so unbelievably tight and hot around him and he was never more grateful to be firmly anchored to reality now if that meant he got to experience this piece of heaven. Naruto was finally beginning to stir awake, his eyebrows drawing into a small frown, as he grew more aware. Excellent. That meant he could now participate and make this even more satisfying. 

Minato waited for Naruto to fully wake up. The moment he saw his eyes open and before clarity returned to them, he took the opportunity to restrain his hands as he pulled back to the tip before thrusting forward. Naruto’s eyes shot wide open with shock and he reflexively clenched down on Minato, causing both of them to shudder. A loud garbled curse escaped from Naruto, “…!!”

  


* * *

  


Struggling futilely against Minato’s hold, Naruto was unable to stop Minato from ravishing him with long, deep thrusts that brushed against his prostate and sending bursts of pleasure up his spine. He simply had no leverage and well, frankly speaking, Minato was already balls deep inside him, making it pretty much  _impossible_  to stop him. The other alternative consisted of excessive violence via application of Sage chakra and he didn’t possess the necessary calm to gather it right now – he was too angry. His traitorous body far too used to  _this_ , couldn’t help but become aroused. Finally conceding defeat, he fell limp against the bed and glared up at Minato. He angrily panted, “What. The. Fuck.” 

Tightening his grip on Naruto’s wrists, Minato gave a leisurely deep roll of his hips that nearly made Naruto’s eyes cross before answering cryptically, “You make me real.”

“Okay, what the fuck are you talking about? You just stripped me  _naked_  and you actually fucked me while I was still A.S.L.E.E.P! I’m guessing that you didn’t even prep me beforehand from the way it  _stings_. I am so fucking pissed off at you right now.” 

It was impressive how Naruto was still able to rant coherently even as Minato slowly fucked him into the bed. Anger allowed him to think clearly despite the toe-curling pleasure his body experienced. Snarling, he clenched his hands into fists, “I’m not a goddamn whore for you to use as you please.”

“I know. I’m sorry but I needed this.” Minato’s quiet reply finally made Naruto halt and look at him, finally seeing that he didn’t look well. There was a feverish light in Minato’s eyes and he looked so blank like a doll. Naruto felt his anger sputter out to be replaced by concern. Relaxing slightly and softening his tone, he asked, “What’s wrong? You say that this… _helps_?”

A flicker of emotion passed over Minato’s face. Pausing, he finally let go of one of Naruto’s wrists to touch his cheek. The gesture worried Naruto greatly. It seemed too desperate and so unlike Minato. Minato finally repeated his first answer, “You make me feel  _real_.”

Naruto had never heard such a needy tone from Minato before. It was scary seeing the legendary Yellow Flash look and sound so lost. Realising that Minato really needed this intimate contact, he took a deep breath to steady his confused emotions. Gently, he took Minato’s hand on his cheek and squeezed, “Okay. I still don’t quite understand… But you’re  _real_  and you’re  _here_  with  _me_. I’m still not happy that you didn’t ask me first but just this once, I’ll let you take what you need.”

Relaxing his inner muscles, he rocked up against Minato to take him in deeper, a fine tremor running through his body at the pleasurable friction. He smiled up at him and breathily said, “Come on, finish this. You’ve got to finish what you started, right?”

Minato shuddered and it was like a dam had been broken. In a fluid motion that made his head spin, Naruto was suddenly on his knees and he choked on a pained scream as he felt Minato roughly enter him again from behind. Gods, this  _hurt_ , his tender flesh burning from the sudden stretching. Minato barely gave him a moment to recover his breath before he started fucking him hard and fast. 

Gritting his teeth at the pain, Naruto forced himself not to instinctively recoil and tried to relax, opening himself up to Minato’s relentless thrusts. This was not about his pleasure. This was about helping Minato to fulfill his needs even if it was at the expense of himself. Minato’s hands on his hips squeezed painfully and a splash of wet heat in him signaled his release. Naruto thought it was over but no, Minato was pushing him back into the bed and ruthlessly fucking him again, panting harshly into his ear.

Naruto restrained a flinch and a pained cry as he felt something suddenly  _tear_ , warm sticky fluid trickling down the back of his thigh. There was a suspiciously familiar scent of copper in the air. Even as he felt the instinctual warm tingle of his body healing quickly, Minato was merciless, giving him no time to breathe or think between thrusts. Stopping was out of question. Determinedly not feeling his eyes stinging, Naruto buried his face in the pillow, clenched his fists in the bedsheets and bit his lips.

This was going to be a very long and painful night. 


	14. Tenebroso 14

#  Tenebroso 14

When morning finally came, the first rays of the sun peeking into the bedroom through the blinds and spilling over onto the bed and stained everything orange, Naruto rolled off the bed with an easy grace. It should have been impossible to move gracefully, much less even _stand_ considering what he had endured during the previous night. But he had no injuries, not even any phantom pain to hinder his movements.

He walked to the bathroom, stepped into the shower and turned on the hot water. Steam began to fill the room and mist up the mirror. Hot water ran down his naked body, causing him to sigh in relief. Soon, his skin was red like a cooked lobster and he reached for the soap. When he was finally clean, Naruto turned off the shower and reached for his towel to dry off. Slinging the towel around his waist, he went to the sink and wiped the condensation off the mirror so he could see what he was doing and not accidentally cut himself as he shaved. The razor felt cool against his skin as he slid it across his jaw.

Naruto’s jaw felt smooth and free of stubble after he rinsed off the shaving foam. He then brushed his teeth and spat the minty foam into the sink. Having finally completed his morning ablutions, Naruto was clean and fresh now. But he still felt so _filthy_. Unable to look at his reflection any longer, he quickly returned to the bedroom to get his clothes.

Opening his closet, he picked out his blue shirt, beige pants and a pair of orange boxers – he was off-duty today. Dropping the towel to the floor, he slid on the boxers, pulled on his shirt and pants. Zipping and buttoning his pants, Naruto could see Minato still fast asleep in the bed behind him through the mirror’s reflection.

With an unreadable expression, he quietly closed the closet and picked up the towel from the floor to hang it back on the towel rack in the bathroom. Then he left the apartment altogether, not wanting to face Minato when he finally woke up.

  


* * *

  


Minato slowly woke up to an empty bed with Naruto nowhere to be seen. He had a slight headache and he felt thirsty. Stretching into a yawn, he wondered briefly where Naruto might have gone before dismissing the thought. He would see him around eventually.

He froze as he caught the faint stale scent of blood and sex. A cold chill went down his spine as he quickly ripped the blankets off the bed and saw a large brownish-red stain on the bed-sheets, together with numerous smaller whitish stains. His mind easily connected the dots even though he could not remember a single detail.

Minato stared at the incriminating evidence in mute horror. His headache was forgotten in the deluge of vivid memories that suddenly unfolded in his mind like a film reel. Clapping his hand over his mouth, Minato dry-heaved, unable to believe that he had done such a terrible deed to Naruto. He didn’t know if it was made worse by the fact that Naruto hadn’t fought back at all or not… _(Was it the seal’s doing…?)_

“Shit…!”

Wrapping the bedsheets around his waist, Minato immediately ran out of the bedroom to look for Naruto. It was a futile attempt. Naruto was nowhere to be seen in their flat and he had not even left a note to tell him where he had gone. His only reassurance was that Naruto’s belongings were still left behind in their flat but even then, it was tenuous at best. Hissing in agitation, Minato decided to rush to the Hokage Tower. The crystal scrying ball would help him to find Naruto quickly as long as he was within Konoha. He could only hope that Naruto hadn’t left the village.

* * *

Naruto eventually found himself sitting on one of the benches near the Konoha Ninja Academy and watching the little kids play in the schoolyard. The academy students’s loud noises were filled with happy innocence and it was nostalgic. It was almost impossible to believe that he had been one of those little children who never held a real sharp kunai yet.

As his eyes lazily drifted over the children, Naruto vaguely recognized some of them as the younger versions of some of his colleagues. Was that Inuzuka girl over there supposed to be Kiba’s elder sister? No, wait, she was too young – in three years, she should be starting her first year. Naruto noticed a boy in a white shirt and shorts quietly sitting on a swing away from the rest. He was absorbed in a book in his lap. The boy had a familiar ponytail and Naruto couldn’t help but wonder to himself, “Iruka…?”

As if the boy could hear his soft whisper, reminding Naruto of Iruka-sensei’s chakra echolocation technique, he looked up in his direction with a curious expression. Naruto couldn’t help but grin as he recognized the familiar horizontal scar across the boy’s nose and the young features that would eventually mature into the masculine adult face he knew well.

Naruto nodded slightly towards the young Iruka with a smile and as Iruka blinked at him in faint suspicion, Naruto took the opportunity to show off a little. With a wink, he drew upon Sage chakra and made himself seamlessly disappear from Iruka’s sight without a single wisp of smoke. Iruka’s jaw dropped open in awe, “Holy crap! That’s so cool…!”.

Naruto smiled as he walked away from the Konoha Ninja Academy, pleased and warmed by Iruka’s reaction. It was good to see that one of his precious people was doing well – as far as he knew, Iruka’s parents should still be alive as Madara never attacked. He hoped that the rest of his friends would also be well.

After Naruto walked past a grocery shop, he ducked into a little alley and navigated the maze-like dark backstreets with ease, thanks to his childhood years as a prankster. He finally emerged from the dark streets into the red light district that was separated from the civilian and shinobi districts by a large river that wound through Konoha. Naruto knew this entire district intimately like the back of his hand and it would be a good place to hide for a while…

“Oh right, I almost forgot.” Forming a hand-seal, Naruto immediately changed his appearance, making himself appear paler and red-haired like a traditional Uzumaki. In addition, he also disrupted his chakra signature to prevent Minato from easily finding him with the crystal seeing ball.

* * *

Meanwhile, Minato restrained the urge to throw the crystal sphere out of the window in pique when it failed to show him Naruto’s location like he had hoped. After all, that sphere had dated from the Shodaime Hokage’s era and a priceless piece of Konoha’s history. Despite his frustration, Minato felt quite impressed that Naruto had cleverly eluded the scrying ball’s detection.

Looking away from the ball and out of the window, Minato gazed down on the sprawling village beneath the his office, in vain hope that he could catch a glimpse of Naruto on the streets even though he did not possess the Byakugan. Clenching his fist on the glass window, he whispered desperately, “Just _where_ are you, Naruto…?”

Unbidden, his chakra stirred and reached out for Naruto without Minato’s awareness. Sighing in resignation, he was about to give up when he felt a faint echo in his chakra senses. Minato immediately recognized the familiar echo as Naruto’s chakra resonating with his own. No one else’s chakra had such an intimate and familiar connection to his, thanks to their blood connection. His eyes widening in realization and relief, he smacked his forehead in chagrin, “Of course…!”

It was probably the first time that Minato actually felt grateful that he was Naruto’s biological father. He would never have been able to find Naruto otherwise as Naruto was far better than him in stealth and infiltration and could stay hidden for as long as he wished. Latching onto Naruto’s chakra trace with utmost focus, Minato followed the trail.

  


* * *

  


“Finally! Yes! I’ve done it!”

Jumping to her feet and pumping her fists in the air in victorious joy, Kushina could not help but dance a little jig in her study, almost carelessly knocking over the pots of ink scattered around on the floor. Yelling at the top of her voice in elation, “Finally! All those weeks of reading and analyzing! All that medical stuff! Fuinjutsu! REPORTS! NO RAMEN BREAKS! No more! I’ve done it! I’m DOOOOONEEE!!”

Grasping the large scroll to her chest, she looked quite a sight with her red hair mussed up, ink streaks on her cheeks and stained hands as she laughed like a maniac. Kushina raised the scroll to her face and snuggled it like it was a precious baby, “Oh, you wonderful seal, you’re my masterpiece! Ero-sennin will be sooo jealous…”

The adrenaline high finally leaving her, Kushina slumped to the floor and passed out with a loud snore. Her immense energies were finally exhausted after such intense fuinjutsu experimenting and studying over a prolonged period of three months with barely a break, not even for her favourite food ramen. It was the fastest time ever recorded for inventing a new seal of S – rank status. The previous record had been a year for Minato’s Hiraishin.

  


* * *

  


In a red-lit room filled with smoke and the stale scent of alcohol, a man with crimson hair sat at the bar counter with a small shot glass filled with an amber liquid in his hand. Beside his hand, there were at least a dozen other identical shot glasses. As the impressed bartender watched him, the man downed the glass in one shot and placed it together with the empty glasses. His low voice demanded quietly, “One more.”

“Damn, are you trying to kill yourself or something? This drink’s really potent stuff from Iwa.” The bartender commented as he poured out another shot glass for the stranger. As the customer lifted the glass to his lips once more, he wryly smiled and replied, “Nah, it just takes a lot to get me buzzed.”

“And you want to forget something, shinobi-san?” The bartender enquired as he collected the empty glasses for washing. The nameless shinobi’s eyes darkened in answer. He finished the drink and as he stood up to leave, he placed enough money on the counter to pay the bill.

“I gotta go. Thanks for all the drinks.”

The bartender watched the stranger approach another man at the door. They talked quietly for a few moments before they both disappeared in smoke like all ninjas do. He mused to himself, “Weird guy.”

  


* * *

  


Hidden away from everyone’s eyes in a dark alley, both Naruto and Minato finally dropped their disguises. Narrowing his eyes, Naruto tersely asked, “How did you find me?”

“Chakra resonance. You can’t hide your chakra from me and neither can I hide from you,” Minato explained quietly, “This is because of our blood connection.”

“…I see. Something so basic, huh. I didn’t expect that.”

Naruto wasn’t looking at Minato as he leaned against the wall behind him, his body tense but not hostile. Minato took a deep breath and apologized sincerely, “I’m sorry for what I did to you last night. I should have never done it.”

“I already know that.” Naruto flatly replied, his emotions unreadable. Minato refrained from stepping closer and asked, “What can I do to make amends?”

Naruto stiffened and it looked like he would bolt but thankfully, he didn’t. Instead, he turned his face to look at Minato with a sad expression, “You don’t have to do anything. It…it wasn’t your fault. You needed it. I…I just need some time away.”

Minato grimaced, feeling a stab of guilt. Naruto was really too forgiving and kind for his own good. But then again, this was also one of the reasons why he adored Naruto. He finally said, “Alright… How much time do you need?”

“I don’t know.” Naruto wasn’t looking at him again, his eyes distant and his voice faint. Minato didn’t like it, the implications of his vague reply sending cold fear spiking in his gut. He couldn’t have Naruto leaving him. Hiding his uneasiness with ease, Minato softly asked, “Can I kiss you?”

Naruto hesitated, surprised by Minato’s request. He stared at Minato scrutinisingly before he nodded slowly, “…Yes.”

Relieved that Naruto wasn’t rejecting him, Minato slowly approached him as though he was a wild animal, trying not to startle him with any sudden movements. Finally standing close enough to feel Naruto’s breath on his skin, he placed his hand on the younger man’s shoulder and leaned forward to gently kiss the younger man in a chaste manner. Naruto remained stiff and unresponsive but Minato wasn’t surprised or disappointed by his behaviour. It was to be expected, considering what he had done to him much to his shame and regret. The fact that Naruto was even allowing him to kiss him; was already more than enough.

Finally breaking the kiss, Minato withdrew slightly and opened his eyes to see Naruto. As Naruto’s blue eyes slowly opened to meet his, he was pained to see the lingering fear in those beautiful eyes. Naruto had never looked so vulnerable or so beautiful before this moment in the red sunset before him; reminding him of the first time he had met the blood-stained younger man among the golden sunflower fields of Kusa. Minato could not bear to see Naruto look at him with fear and he wanted very badly to go back in time and prevent his mistake. An idea struck him then and he grasped it without hesitation, wanting to help Naruto forget his fear.

He murmured, “I’m so sorry, Naruto.”

Before Naruto could respond, Minato swiftly knocked him out and caught him before he fell to the ground. Concentrating, he activated the seal and began to lock away Naruto’s memories of the event so they would no longer trouble him. It was easily done in a matter of minutes. When Naruto reopened his eyes, his eyes were clear and he grimaced, “…Ow, my head! Urgh, I’m never touching another drop of alcohol again!”

Minato smiled fondly and suggested, “Shall we go home? You should sleep off the hangover.”

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea.” Naruto blearily rubbed his forehead, wondering why he felt like he had just woken up from a bad dream. Minato held out his hand, waiting to take both of them home. He took it with a smile.


	15. Tenebroso 15

#  Tenebroso 15

Autumn had arrived in Konoha. The emerald green of the trees had transformed seemingly overnight into a riot of rich reds, yellows and brown. It also became cool enough to warrant slightly thicker clothing than usual for warmth. There was also an excited buzz in the air around the village – the annual Mid-Autumn Moon Festival was approaching soon and everyone, both civilian and shinobi looked forward to the festivities, eager for some good fun and a chance to rewind.

The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival still remained a novelty to Naruto even though he had already experienced it three times. This would be his fourth time and he looked forward to reliving the magical experience of a fair replete with colourful lanterns of various shapes and sizes, delicious food, games, music and drinks. And not to mention the beautiful women in gorgeous yukatas and kimonos. Jiraiya would obviously be gaining lots of inspiration soon. It was an experience, which he rarely enjoyed as a child, cloistered within his apartment for his safety. Apparently, the Kyuubi Festival had replaced this festival after the attack in his reality, a fact that depressed him a little.

Tucking his hands in his pockets, Naruto strolled through the streets, interestedly taking in the sights of the various preparations for the festival. His mouth watered at the savoury smells of various traditional sweets and foods being prepared. He looked forward to eating them soon. As he meandered, he could not help but see the Hokage Mountain in his peripheral vision – it just loomed over Konoha, too obvious and large to be ignored. Glancing at the stern visage of Minato’s face on the mountain, Naruto snickered to himself as he remembered Minato’s discomfort at the idea of his image so prominently displayed to the world. Minato had always been a private person despite his friendly personality. The statue was an affront to his sensibilities but he couldn’t refuse and break tradition.

Talking of Minato… His lover had been acting kind of weird lately. Not the bad kind of weird, more like…he was being more considerate and gentler than usual? Minato’s new behaviour had also spilled over into the bedroom; he now always asked for permission beforehand. While the sex was still great, its pace was generally slower and more – Naruto couldn’t help but feel his cheeks warm up - _…romantic._

Naruto didn’t mind the changes (in fact, he relished it) but he did wonder what the cause for Minato’s unusual behaviour was. Before he could think further on it, a messenger bird flew overhead, reminding him that he still had yet to arrange a meeting with Jiraiya to discuss his former students in Rain and what to do with them. As a fellow student, he felt obligated to help the Rain trio avoid the tragedy that they had experienced in his reality and he hoped that talking with Jiraiya would be one step forward. Naruto wondered if Jiraiya was going to end up peeking at the hot springs at the festival tonight again or if he would be slumming it up in a bar with half-naked girls hanging off his arms or… Well, needless to say, Jiraiya’s vices and habits were comfortingly familiar even across dimensions.

  


* * *

  


“Hokage-sama.” A male voice dryly greeted him, its tone bordering on insubordinate. Remaining unruffled, Minato lifted his gaze from a report to see an elderly one-eyed man at the door. Silently observing the man with sharp eyes, he mused that Danzo would not be able to get his hands on the Sharingan so easily like Naruto’s Danzo had done if the plans went well. Otherwise, it would have been quite troublesome to fight him with those eyes as well as the implanted Mokuton ability he apparently possessed. Knowledge was power indeed and Minato was quite thankful for Naruto’s valuable information.

Because even without the Sharingan, the old man was still a very dangerous ninja, having been Sandaime Sarutobi’s rival years ago and Minato did not fancy tangling with him on the battlefield with the Sharingan. Having to tangle with him in the office was already bad enough. Putting aside the report, he neutrally said, “You’re late, Danzo.”

“My apologies. I was not expecting to receive a summons from you so early in the day.” Danzo slowly tapped his way to the chair in front of Minato’s desk and gingerly sat down, the very picture of an infirm elderly man. It was hard to believe that this man could actually still fight as well as a ninja in his prime. Danzo leaned forward on his cane and questioned flatly, “So. What does the Fourth Hokage want from an old retired man at this time of the day?”

Minato mirthlessly smiled, his teeth bared. As he replied, “Let’s cut to the case, shall we?” he opened the second drawer on the left side of his table and ran a chakra-coated finger across the back of the drawer to unseal a highly classified scroll. Pulling the scroll out and placing it in front of him, Minato kept his hand on it to ensure that Danzo wouldn’t snatch it away from him. He continued, “Everything about your organisation Root is contained in this scroll, dating from the time of its founding in the Second Shinobi War all the way up to…yesterday.”

To Danzo’s credit, he remained firmly stoic and calm. After a long moment of thoughtful silence, he shrewdly said, “So you knew. I’m impressed. But as I’m currently not languishing in a cell or dead, I presume that you wish to make a deal?”

Minato kept his smile on, modulating his tone into a polite one, as he replied, “Not quite…” With a snap of his fingers, Danzo suddenly found himself surrounded with black sinous lines forming a containment seal. “…I am commanding you as _Hokage_ , Shimura Danzo.”

A closer glance had Danzo break out into nervous sweat – they were a time-space seal, to be more precise, a variation of the Reverse Four Seals Danzo had on his very own body. He could sense powerful chakra coiled in the lines, ready to activate and blast him into oblivion.

 _That impudent rascal…! When had he placed this seal…?!_

Danzo could not see a way out, knowing that he was too slow to escape the Hokage, also known as the Yellow Flash, and that a single move could be his end. He had not expected this and he felt angry for not having foreseen it.

 _Oh…I see. He exploited my deliberate lateness to lay this trap. Clever and so simple…_

Yet, he was impressed by the cleverness and sheer audacity of laying the trap within the Hokage Office itself, the highest sanctum of Konoha. It also displayed Namikaze Minato’s ruthless streak that was startlingly much closer to Danzo’s brand than Sarutobi’s.

Taking a breath to recollect himself, Danzo slowly nodded towards Minato, “Well played, Hokage-sama. I did not expect such a cold-blooded response from you; you who was appointed by Sarutobi as his successor… Impressive. Very well. What is it you ask of me and Root?”

Seeing that he had won this battle, Minato wordlessly took out another scroll and pushed it towards Danzo. He said, “Everything about the targets is written in this scroll. Read it carefully and instruct your subordinates to be cautious – all of them are S –Rank. Eliminate them by any means necessary as long as it’s not traced back to Konoha. Do you understand?”

Danzo took the scroll and opened it to skim through the contents and he was shocked to see whom the targets were and even more so by the extremely detailed information about the targets, which would have been almost impossible, to gain due to the high risks involved. Closing the scroll with a snap, he clarified, “Hokage-sama, am I to believe that the information has been verified and is current?”

“Yes.”

“…Understood, sir. May I be dismissed?” Danzo remained seated, still wary of the seal that surrounded him. Minato nodded and the seal flickered away, the oppressive pressure receding and letting Danzo breathe easier. He got up, bowed and walked to the door.

Before Danzo left, he heard Minato say, “I am not Sarutobi and neither am I as lenient as he. If you or Root ever step a toe out of line, I am within my full rights as Hokage to execute you and purge Root. It would be in your best interests not to antagonise me again in the future. Have a pleasant day.”

Danzo walked out of the room in a swirl of conflicting emotions. That had not gone the way he had expected; Minato had taken the reins from the very beginning and shown him to be someone not to be trifled with. His pride had been severely injured but at the same time, he found himself strangely approving of the young man. After all, if it had been him, he probably would have done the same…

“Looks like Konoha might be in good hands this time…”

  


* * *

  


Hours later, when the sun was setting and the shadows grew long, Minato tidied up the stack of paperwork before stretching his back with a groan of relief and audible popping sounds. He didn’t really like being stationary for so long and doing paperwork on top of that was quite a pain in the neck, both literally and figuratively. No wonder Sarutobi had seemed so gleeful on relinquishing the hat to him years ago… Grabbing the pile of paperwork, he pushed the door open and handed the stack to his secretary, a middle-aged ex-Anbu kunoichi with a smile, “Please file these and thank you, Sato-san.”

“Yes, Hokage-sama. See you tomorrow.” Sato gave a small smile as she took the papers. Minato liked her efficiency and discreetness. She was also _intelligent_ , a quality Minato valued highly because it meant that she was able to quickly suss out the dross from the important work when the pile came in first thing in the morning, saving him the hassle of having to go through everything one by one. He supposed that it probably came from years of experience working in Anbu as an information specialist working to decipher encoded information.

With a cheerful whistle, Minato finally went home, satisfied that the day had gone well; especially the meeting with Danzo. However, knowing that man, it would definitely not be the last time Minato would have to tangle with him again. At least, he was certain that Danzo and Root would accomplish the mission that he had given them.

  


* * *

  


The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival had finally arrived. On this special day, Konoha did not take any missions to allow her citizens reprieve for the occasion. Ninjas both male and female, gleefully took the rare opportunity to let their hair down and put on their finest clothes, eager for the festivities and games. Meanwhile, on the streets, you could see some people still running around, frantically making last-minute adjustments – it had to be _perfect_ , for tonight was would be their only and best chance for them to shine (and hopefully get more patrons)…until the next year, that is.

As the sun began to set over the horizon, lanterns were lit, their ephemeral colourful glow brightening the darkness and complementing the stars. Soon, the full moon appeared, its bright and silvery glow haloed around it. It was almost overshadowed by Konoha beneath it. Konoha had transformed into a carnival-like wonderland with multitudes of shops lining the streets and hawking their fares, some as far away as Mizu or even Iwa, long-time enemy of Konoha. It was almost hard to believe that the Third Shinobi War had ended only two years ago.

Naruto hooked his hands in the belt of his burnished orange yukata simply embellished with his insignia of nine-lined swirls, reminiscent of his secret heritage and a nod to his new identity as the Fox Sage. He was surveying the streets before him, trying to decide what he should do or see first. The games called out to his inner child but the savoury and sweet smells of food tempted his stomach. He turned to his left, wanting to ask Minato for his suggestion but stopped short when he didn’t see him there. Oh, that’s right, Minato was still stuck in the office, handling some last-minute reports. Poor man. Minato had promised to catch up with him as soon as he could but Naruto wasn’t expecting him to be able to make it and didn’t want to stress him further with his expectations.

Naruto’s stomach rumbled, settling his decision for him. He turned towards the food section and followed his nose to his favourite stall. Soon, the familiar sign of Ichiraku Ramen was in sight and Naruto felt his mouth water, as he smelled the delicious scent of miso and pork broth wafting across to him, as if seductively beckoning him to partake of noodly goodness. Unconsciously, his feet sped up and he was soon running in all-out dash to the stall, calling out, “Hey, old man, gimme three bowls of miso pork!”

“Gimme three bowls of seafood, Teuchi-jiisan!” A familiar voice cried as a blur of red, green and blue cut in his path. Not pausing to see who the interloper was, Naruto put on extra speed, trying to get there first so his orders would get served first. The other person did the same, attempting to elbow him in the ribs as she did so. Naruto reflexively dodged and finally recognised her as Uzumaki Kushina, “You! I should have known it was you!”

“…Oh, why hello! It’s Naruto! I’m not letting you get there first!” Kushina grinned back unrepentantly, her short ponytail bobbing as she ran. Naruto childishly stuck out his tongue at her and pulled down his eyelid as he dashed ahead, leaving her in the dust, “Nyah nyah nyah, not a chance!”

“Why youuuu….!” Kushina applied chakra to her legs and sprinted forward, yanking Naruto’s collar back, causing him to choke. As he rubbed his throat, Kushina was ahead already as she cheerily waved back, “See ya later! Hope you get there before I eat up everything!”

“Oh, it’s on!” With a burst of motion, Naruto and Kushina were caught up in an impromptu race to Ichiraku, jostling each other neck to neck.

  


* * *

  


“Ugh, I’m so full.” “Me too.”

The satisfied duo were beaming as they paid the happy Teuchi enough to pay for the prodigious amounts of ramen they had eaten between the two of them. Naruto noted that Kushina was wearing a pale green and blue yukata with a wave motif with carps dancing in the cloth. The cloth seemed to shimmer in the lantern light, offsetting Kushina’s distinctive fiery red hair. He was constantly amazed by how beautiful his mother-to-be was and had to wonder at how anyone in his original reality could have forgotten such a striking figure.

“Hey, Naruto, I’m meeting up with my friend Mikoto later. Would you like to come along? Or are you waiting for your special _boyfriend_?” Kushina’s eyes were mischievous but kind. Naruto was about to answer jokingly but he froze as he realised the ramifications of Kushina meeting Minato and drawing the connections. It was going to be like the Fourth War (well, Fifth for him).

He gulped and decided that it was probably better to turn her invitation down just in case Minato _did_ turn up despite his workload. It was such a pity because he was really quite keen to meet Mikoto, the lady who had been Sasuke’s and Itachi’s mother and if he was lucky, he could also meet little Sasuke and Itachi. (Naruto still boggled at the thought that Sasuke would actually be a baby. A baby! And Itachi would be only four, five years old?)

“Yeah, sorry, I’m waiting for him. You can go ahead and meet your friend Mikoto. Say hi to her and her boys for me, please?”

“Ok.” Kushina nodded. She then peered closely at Naruto and thoughtfully hummed, “You know, I haven’t seen your boyfriend not even once. I’m starting to wonder if he actually exists and you just said that to avoid further questions and fangirls. When will you introduce me to him?”

Naruto barely refrained from squirming in discomfort at Kushina’s observant comments. Seeing Naruto’s hesitance, Kushina laughed and placed her hand on her chest, “No bets involved, I promise!”

“Ah no, it’s just that…it’s really hard for me to tell you who he is…” Naruto painfully admitted, his heart pounding in his chest. It was so unbelievably hard to say the words. It seemed as though it was even harder than admitting he was from an alternate reality and the former container of Kyuubi. It made sense because Kushina was after all, not only his mother, but also one of his closest friends and the truth would hurt her.

“I don’t think…you will take it well. Because…” Naruto haltingly continued before he took Kushina’s hand, “Let’s go somewhere private.”

“…Okay.” Kushina smiled at him encouragingly and he felt even guiltier. Avoiding her gaze, he brought them to the fringes of the festival, near the Hokage Mountain where it was quieter and less populated. It was also quite dim, the moon having been temporarily covered with clouds. Taking a deep breath, Naruto finally turned to face her and said, “I’m going to apologise in advance. I never meant for any of this to happen. I never meant to intentionally hurt you. I just…God, how do I explain?”

“What are you trying to say, Naruto? I don’t understand.” Kushina now felt rather confused by Naruto’s odd behaviour. It felt as though Naruto was confessing to her, not in the romantic sense but for having committed some sin. Naruto flexed his hands, feeling a nervous sweat break out on his skin. But before he spoke, there was a slight breeze behind him and someone spoke for him.

“What he means to say is that he is with _me_.”

Kushina gasped and she was staring wide-eyed at the newcomer behind him. Naruto had barely turned around when he was pulled into a fiercely possessive kiss and surrounded by an overwhelmingly familiar scent and presence. He felt a hand sneak under his yukata and brazenly give his ass a firm squeeze, causing him to jump in surprise. Then all too quickly, it was over and Naruto dazedly stared at the familiar back, his cheeks hot and his lips tingling. Kushina’s face had turned an unflattering puce as she accusingly greeted the newcomer, “You…!”

“Sorry I’m late, Naruto. And hello, Uzumaki-san.”

The clouds had finally moved, revealing the moon. In the bright moonlight, the distinctive white Hokage coat shone brilliantly. It was unmistakeably Namikaze Minato as he stood in front of Naruto, shielding him from Kushina's view.


	16. Tenebroso 16

# Tenebroso 16

Kushina’s head was spinning as she stared at Minato and a red-faced Naruto speechlessly. There were too many conflicting emotions and thoughts within her head to sort through easily. Her mouth opened and shut as she struggled for words. Kushina felt as though she was going to either scream, faint or break something; preferably Minato’s nose. 

However, on seeing Naruto’s nervous face, she forcefully pulled herself together with a deep breath. She couldn’t flip out  _now_ , not when Naruto looked so afraid and had so bravely tried to tell her the truth despite knowing that she would have most likely reacted negatively. Ignoring Minato with much difficulty, she smiled at Naruto in a slightly strained manner, “I see. So this is why you were so reluctant to tell me about your boyfriend, Naruto. It must have been quite difficult for you. Thank you for telling me, I really appreciate it.”

“And as for you, Minato…” Kushina narrowed her eyes at Minato, her tone bitter as she warned, “You better not break Naruto’s heart like you did with mine. ”

“I have no intentions of doing that.” Minato coolly replied, his eyes like ice. Kushina flipped him off with a venomous, “Fuck. You.”

Not wanting to spend any further time in Minato’s company, she turned around and stormed off, her mood completely ruined and desperately needing a drink. She ignored Naruto’s voice plaintively calling her, “Kushina-chan-!”

  


* * *

  


When Kushina’s figure could no longer be seen, Naruto faced Minato with an accusing glare, “Why the hell did you do that for? You should treat her better than that, considering that she used to be your fiancée.”

“ _Ex_ -fiancée.” Minato reminded him. With an amused smile, he said reassuringly “Don’t worry about it too much. Kushina’s always been very volatile and holds a grudge better than anyone. She’s just upset about the fact that I broke up with her. In fact, she was quite cordial, relatively speaking.”

Naruto still didn’t feel very convinced but he couldn’t disagree with Minato’s assertion about Kushina’s temperament. It was true that she had a short fuse and could be quite vengeful whenever she was slighted. He exhaled deeply and finally said, “…Fine. Just don’t do that again. I don’t want to flaunt our relationship in front of her, especially considering that she’s…” 

Naruto paused with a strained expression before continuing, “…You know, who she is in relation to me... It makes me feel like a home-wrecker even if you were already separated before we got together.” 

Minato’s eyes flickered with an unreadable emotion too quickly for Naruto to pick up on it. “Understood. I won’t do it again.” He said, “I’m sorry for putting you in that situation.”

Naruto’s lips quirked into a brief smile but his eyes remained troubled. He asked, “What exactly happened between you and Kushina to cause your relationship to become so bad? It’s not because of me, is it?”

Minato chuckled, “No. It has absolutely  _nothing_  to do with you. You don’t have to be concerned.”  _And I’ll make sure that you’re never involved._

“…If you say so…” Biting his lip, Naruto looked up at the moon and back at Minato before questioning uncertainly, “Do you think that Kushina will hate me for this?”

“Kushina’s not the kind of person to be irrational,” Minato assuaged Naruto’s fears, “She’s more likely to hate me than you, actually.”

Naruto couldn’t help but wince, still feeling some guilt. Minato raised an eyebrow and continued, “If you weren’t paying attention just now, she did give her blessings by telling me to treat you well, albeit in a rather caustic fashion.”

“Oh yeah…I was being silly, huh?” Naruto self-consciously rubbed his head with an abashed smile. Minato smiled back, “It’s only natural, considering that she’s one of your closest friends.”

“…Hm.” Naruto noncommittally replied as he looked in the direction Kushina had left. Dark jealousy spiked in Minato when he realised that Naruto could possibly be thinking of going after Kushina. Finding the prospect very unappealing, he quickly said, “Don’t worry, Kushina will be fine. By the way, what would you like to see at the festival? I’ve got the whole night off.” 

“Ah! I’ll like to play some games. I think I saw a stall where you could catch fish…” Naruto immediately lit up at the thought of festival games like a child, Kushina all but forgotten. Minato indulgently smiled, “Well, I hope that they allow shinobi to play because some game stalls do forbid us from playing due to unfair advantages.”

“Then we’ll just have to check it out for ourselves! But first…” Naruto eyed Minato critically and imperiously said, “You have to change out of your current clothes into something more appropriate. You’re going incognito tonight unless you want to be mobbed by fans?”

“…You do have a point.” Minato sheepishly conceded.

  


* * *

  


Kushina had rushed home shortly after meeting with Mikoto and telling her that she didn’t feel well enough to stay out for long. (Mikoto had been quite puzzled but thankfully didn’t question her, being so distracted with her children at the same time. That Uchiha Sasuke was one fussy kid.) Her desire to see the festival had completely dissipated after the encounter with Minato. Not bothering to change out of her fancy yukata and removing her ponytail, she flopped down onto her bed. Burying her face into the pillows, Kushina let out a muffled scream. Then she punched the pillow hard a couple of times to vent. Her emotions finally exhausted, she rolled over onto her back to stare at the ceiling. 

“…Fucking hell. I’d never imagined that Minato swung both ways. Man, the ladies are so going to be disappointed if they knew…”

Lapsing into thoughtful silence, Kushina sighed and got up from the bed to change into her sleepwear. Stripping off the yukata and flippantly throwing it into the laundry bin, she unhooked her bra and brazenly spun it on her finger, aiming it at the clothes hook on the bathroom door. Letting it fly, she said out loud, “Just when exactly did they get together anyway?”

As the bra successfully landed on the hook, she scrimmaged for a tank top and sweat pants. Slipping them on, Kushina’s gaze fell on the scroll on her desk, the culmination of her research into the Cursed Heaven Seal and her face twisted into a grimace, “…Oh shit. I’d almost forgotten about this. This has just become a whole lot more complicated with Naruto involved…”

Kushina groaned and rubbed her temples, feeling a headache come on. She was going to make Naruto very unhappy if he found out that she suspected Minato of furthering Orochimaru’s work – it was an inconceivable concept. Even she herself would not have thought it possible months ago, if not for that chilling encounter in the library and Minato’s increasingly odd behaviour before their break-up. 

As she curled up on the bed, cuddling the pillow to her chest and drifting off to sleep, Kushina sleepily wondered why she had felt a sense of wrongness at seeing Naruto in Minato’s arms. She had already gotten over Minato so she shouldn’t have felt anything…right?

  


* * *

  


Having spent a good part of the night enjoying the festivities with Minato (who had changed into a more discreet steel grey yukata but sadly, he was still too recognisable due to his distinctive yellow hair), Naruto had never felt happier even if they were pretending not to be lovers but as a pair of friends. They had both agreed to hide their relationship, as they did not want to invite scrutiny from the rest of Konoha as well as foreign nations. They already received too much attention by themselves. 

Nevertheless, this also meant that Minato had to deal with countless scores of women trying to woo him especially now that he was “available” after his break-up with Kushina, much to his chagrin. In fact, right now, a civilian woman with rather familiar pink hair (too young to be Sakura’s mother…perhaps a cousin or aunt?) was fluttering her eyelashes at a perturbed Minato. Naruto found it absolutely hilarious and had to struggle to not laugh out loud at her crestfallen face when Minato steadfastly ignored her and hurriedly walked on. 

Remembering that he had an appointment to keep (it felt like days ago that he had been with Kushina when it had actually only been a few hours), Naruto concentrated and his eyes turned gold while his eyelids turned red. Within moments, he easily found Jiraiya’s chakra signature. Nodding to himself, he slung his arm around Minato’s shoulders and informed him, “Hey, I’m going to see Ero-Sennin about his students in Rain. Want to come along?”

Minato raised an eyebrow and replied, “Sure, why not? This concerns Konoha’s welfare, doesn’t it? It’s also a good chance for me to catch up with Jiraiya.”

“Great! Follow me, I know where he is…that is, if you can.” Naruto’s smile had a faint hint of seductive challenge and he seamlessly slipped away from his side into the crowd. Recognising the challenge, Minato also smiled and promptly began to tail him.

  


* * *

  


Jiraiya was having a good time with fine sake on his lips and a gorgeous woman on each side. Simple pleasures could be the best pleasures in life, indeed. Already, he could feel inspiration beginning to flow like the sake the lovely brunette on his left leaned over to pour into his cup, offering a tantalising glimpse of her white cleavage through the folds of her yukata. The dip between her full breasts tempted him with its mysterious shadow.

While the blond woman on his right wasn’t as voluptuous as a certain blond princess he knew, she had a clever wit and smile that charmed him. He certainly enjoyed the conversation with her and he planned to quote some of her memorable witticisms in future books and perhaps even model one of his heroines after her. (No, that wasn’t his fondness for blonde women/Tsunade speaking. Honest.) It was shaping up to be an enjoyable night as the women leaned into him, their warmth and perfume mesmerising him.

Sadly, a familiar cry soon brought him crashing down from his bliss, “Hey, Ero-sennin!”

The women laughed and Jiraiya groaned loudly – god, he hated that nickname! Regretfully waving away his muses-to-be, he turned to face the impudent culprit with a scowl, “Brat! Don’t call me th- oh, you’re here as well?” 

Naruto unrepentantly grinned and waved at him from the door. Beside him, Minato looked rather amused. Jiraiya shook his head and got up from the sofa. Jerking his head in the direction of the VIP room, he motioned them to follow him. Once inside the lavish room, he immediately activated the privacy wards to prevent eavesdroppers from listening in and unwanted guests. 

As Jiraiya made himself comfortable on the couch, he watched the blond pair squeeze in on the opposite couch. It was interesting how similar and yet how different the duo were. While Naruto sat in a loose-limbed manner, Minato sat with more decorum (perhaps even more so now that he was the Hokage), reflecting their different personalities. But on a deeper level, they shared similar beliefs and values and meshed well together on a level akin to a twin bond. On top of that, they even looked uncannily alike at first glance. It was no wonder that strangers often mistook them for actual brothers. 

“You wanted to speak with me?” 

Naruto nodded. With a side-glance at Minato, he asked, “What do you know about Akatsuki?”

Jiraiya took a moment to think. He finally answered, “Nothing much. I just know that it’s a very young rebel organisation that was formed in Rain.”

“Are you aware that the three founders of Akatsuki were your former students? Namely, Konan, Nagato and Yahiko.”

Jiraiya started at the familiar names, not expecting to hear them from Naruto’s mouth. He hadn’t even told Minato about the trio of Rain orphans and Naruto was never his student; so how did he know that piece of information? He frowned at Naruto suspiciously, not liking the idea that his personal information could have been compromised. 

Minato smoothly interjected, “Jiraiya, we need you to get in touch with them again and see if they’re interested in forming an alliance with Konoha. It seems highly likely that Hanzo will be removed from power soon and it is imperative that Konoha gain an ally in Rain.”

“…So since I used to be their teacher, I stand the best chance of getting them to agree.” Jiraiya stated. Minato nodded. Naruto picked up the conversation and continued, “There’s also another objective to this mission. My contacts in Rain have informed me that there have been rumours of Danzo collaborating with Hanzo. I’m not sure if they’re true but my contacts can’t get close enough to check without putting themselves at risk. You have no such problems.”

“Danzo, huh… I’ve always never liked that man. Cagey bastard.”

“If the rumours are true, find out what their plans are and immediately report back to Konoha with the proof. Do not attempt to engage either Danzo or Hanzo,” Minato ordered.

“Of course. I’m not that foolish. After all, I was your teacher, you know,  _Hokage-sama_.” Jiraiya rolled his eyes but his tone was good-natured. Minato smiled in acquiescence, “True. But it still doesn’t hurt to be cautious all the same.”

“So is that all you wanted to speak with me about?” Jiraiya asked, sensing that the topic had finally come to its end. Naruto shrugged, “Yeah, pretty much. We’re counting on you.”

Minato stood up, “We’ll take our leave now. I’m sure you want to get back to your previous activities now.”

“Of course! I’ve got a deadline to meet, you know.” 

Naruto raised a sceptical eyebrow at him as he followed Minato, “Huh uh, you just want to perv some more on the ladies, you pervert.”

“I’m not a pervert. I’m a super-pervert!” Jiraiya declared proudly. 

Naruto shook his head in fond amusement. Jiraiya really never changed.


	17. Tenebroso 17

# Tenebroso 17

The festival finally drew to an end as the shopkeepers began to close their stalls and pack away their merchandise. Most of the people had already gone home. Over the next few days, genin teams with their jounin teachers (most likely hung-over and red-eyed) would clear the streets of all traces of the festival as though it had only been a fanciful and ephemeral dream. However, there was still time to enjoy the last lingering moments in the strange peaceful quiet (aside from the occasional faint drunken strains of garbled songs) that fell upon the village.

As Naruto leant against the red railings of the familiar bridge his team used to meet in a time and reality far away, he closed his eyes and yawned. His feet felt sore from tramping up and down the deceptively large village festival and he was now feeling a bit drained from all the earlier excitement. Nevertheless, the sensation of exhaustion was pleasant and he felt like he could drift away on the slight cool breeze. He softly smiled as he felt Minato join him, his familiar warm body pressing against his side. His smile widened a little as he felt Minato slide his arm around his waist and he murmured, “Hey, aren’t you getting a bit too _friendly_? We’re still in public.”

“I’ve already checked; no one’s around for miles. But you already know that,” Minato chuckled and asked, “So, this bridge is the one your team used as a meeting point?”

“Yeah…it seems like ages ago. I can’t believe how much time has passed.” A pause. “Urgh, the time paradox really hurts my brain.”

Minato snorted in amusement, “Don’t strain yourself. I’d be very sad if you got hurt, your Uzumaki resilience notwithstanding.”

“Thanks for your concern. Are you going to stop sending me on S-rank missions if I were to get hurt?” Naruto drolly answered.

“Nope. I’m not worried about your physical capabilities. It’s your mental capabilities I’m worried about,” Minato teased him. Naruto finally cracked his eyes open to glower at him, “You’re so mean.”

Minato smiled as he pulled Naruto in closer for a kiss. His younger lover made a delightful approving noise that reminded him of a purr as his eyes slid shut in bliss. When they finally had to break for air, Naruto gave him a small, intimate smile and whispered, “Let’s go home.”

“As you command,” Minato said as he began to activate his hiraishin jutsu. In a blink of the eye, the duo was gone.

  


* * *

  


As soon as they re-appeared in their dim bedroom, Minato found himself being pushed down onto the bed and a warm weight was straddling him as Naruto kissed him thoroughly. Surprised by Naruto’s eagerness, he reciprocated with equal fervour, slipping his hand under the hem of Naruto’s orange yukata to squeeze his firm bottom. Hearing Naruto’s aroused moan and seeing his cheeks grow flushed, Minato thought that he was beginning to understand what Jiraiya meant by the appeal of traditional wear – they provided such easy access.

The knots in their obi were already loose from their activities and it was just a simple matter of pulling one end of the cloth to undo the yukata. As Naruto’s yukata fell off him to reveal his handsome body, Minato couldn’t resist touching his stomach where the seal that had kept Kyuubi bound inside him, lay. Naruto shuddered and he said breathily, “Do you know that I only feel this sensitive when it’s you…?”

Minato raised an eyebrow and continued to trace the intricate lines, the penmanship familiar and yet not at the same time, causing Naruto to close his eyes. He answered, “Interesting… Maybe there’s some resonance involved. Perhaps this defunct seal still recognises ‘my’ chakra signature. I’ll have to look at it in further detail-“

Naruto cut him off with another hungry kiss, rutting against Minato. His hands tugged at his yukata, only managing to pull it partially off him as their current intertwined position made it impossible to remove it. Minato chuckled as Naruto growled in annoyance, “You can do that later. I want to have sex _now_.”

“Impatient,” Minato smiled fondly. Naruto barely recognised the mischievous glint in his eyes before Minato quickly reversed their positions. Holding down his wrists, Minato bent down to his stomach, tracing the spiral with his tongue and kissing the skin. Naruto arched his back, gasping at the wave of warm pleasure radiating from the center of his body. He couldn’t believe how good that had felt. He was even more aroused than before and he writhed, trying to get some friction on his cock. It was really unfair that Minato was still more dressed than him and had more leverage over him, preventing him from moving.

  


* * *

  


Minato was intrigued by Naruto’s reactions to his ministrations. He also found it very arousing that he could and was the only one to incite such responses in the young man. The only thing that soured his new knowledge was that it was the other ‘him’ who had placed that seal on Naruto… Ironically, it also explained why Naruto had responded so well to his seal; he was already well primed for his mark.

Sitting up and letting go of Naruto’s wrists, Minato shrugged off his yukata and dropped it onto the floor together with Naruto’s clothes. Naruto watched him with hungry eyes as he retrieved the lubricant from the drawer and tossed it at him. Naruto impatiently said, “About time you got started. You can be so slow in bed that it’s hard to believe that you’re actually the Yellow Flash…”

Minato easily caught the tube and he drawled with a smirk, “Say all you want, but you really like it _slow_ , don’t you?”

Naruto blushed, not denying the truth. It was rather endearing that Naruto still occasionally reacted like a virgin despite being the contrary. Then he glared and snatched back the tube from Minato. He snapped, “Fine. If you’re not going to do anything, I’m going to do it myself.”

With an unselfconscious shimmy of his hips, he slid his boxers down his hips and legs, finally pushing them off with his feet onto the floor. Minato appreciated how the simple action showed off Naruto’s fine physique. However, he couldn’t quite contain his gasp when Naruto slicked three of his fingers and began to slowly push in two fingers into himself, his legs spread wide to offer him an intimate view of how his fingers sank into his ass. Minato’s mouth went dry.

  


* * *

  


Naruto bit his lower lip as he tried to stretch himself as quickly as possible without hurting himself. When he felt ready, he carefully inserted his third finger, hissing as he felt the familiar burn that quickly faded into the background noise of the thrumming heat and anticipation. The fullness of his fingers in him felt good but it wasn’t quite enough to satisfy him. Naruto twisted his fingers in deeper but he was unable to reach his prostate from this angle.

Hissing in annoyance, Naruto raised his hips in an attempt to rectify this, chasing after the tantalising hints of exquisite pleasure. In his peripheral vision, Minato was watching him, his sharp eyes catching every single move of his body. Naruto almost blushed under such intense scrutiny but he loved it, being the center of Minato’s full attention. Though he really wanted to move on to the actual sex and he still couldn’t reach his damn prostate, Naruto deliberately slowed down his movements, arched his back even more and spread his legs even wider, putting on an impromptu show for Minato’s eyes only. He boldly met his gaze with a teasing smirk as he slowly fucked himself on his fingers, “Is this too _fast_ for you?”

Minato was the most aroused he had ever been by Naruto’s erotic performance. He wanted nothing more than to fuck Naruto hard and fast like he had demanded but he restrained himself (admittedly, with much difficulty). He was wary of hurting Naruto again, even unintentionally. He couldn’t do _that_ again. But then, Naruto was asking for it so… Minato finally responded with a raised brow, affecting a polite deadpan tone, “Oh no, not at all. I’m rather enjoying the view. I didn’t know that you were such an exhibitionist. Do continue.”

Naruto was rather annoyed that he hadn’t gotten the reaction he’d wanted from Minato. He had wanted to make him lose control, because frankly, he was starting to get a bit bored with the vanilla, slow sex even if it was his favourite way of having sex. It was time for a change and he wanted a good, hard fuck that would leave him pleasantly sore for hours.

Levelling a heavy-lidded gaze at Minato, Naruto couldn’t help but be impressed by his control. Minato looked absolutely unaffected and calm despite what his keen sense of smell told him. Minato’s arousal smelled rich and spicy and it melded easily with his own scent to create an intoxicating haze that only made him even hornier.

Minato looked at him coolly and his lips curved slowly into a smirk that was too sexy for his own good. He teasingly said, “Are you growing shy on me now? You’ve stopped.”

Naruto finally had enough. Abruptly pulling out his fingers, he shivered slightly at the sudden sensation of emptiness in him before he quickly jumped on Minato. He kissed him hard, thrusting his tongue into his mouth and nibbling on his lips. Grinding his hardness against Minato’s and grinning at the hitch in Minato’s breath, Naruto nipped his earlobe and purred, “Are you too tired to have sex with me? How sad.”

  


* * *

  


In reply, Minato raised an eyebrow and pushed in two fingers into Naruto without warning. Naruto yelped and jerked forward, grabbing his shoulders as he clenched around his intrusive fingers, “Holy-!”

Without stopping to let him adjust, Minato crooked his fingers just so and pressed hard against his prostate, causing Naruto to buck his hips and whine helplessly at the intense sensation, “Oh god, you’re so _unfair_ and _evil!_ Fuck!”

“Do you want me to stop?” Minato drolly said. Naruto immediately gave him a light smack on the head as he hissed, “Do that and I’ll kill you, even if you’re the damn Hokage. Just fuck me now, damn it!”

“As you command, Naruto.” Minato finally obliged him with a smile, carefully removing his fingers. After he had taken off his boxers and finally nude, Naruto held him to his entrance and began to slowly sink down on him, easily accepting his length. As always, he felt as tight as a virgin.

  


* * *

  


Naruto was finally impaled to the hilt on Minato’s cock and he took a few seconds for a breather as Minato caressed his back soothingly. Even with preparation, the first penetration was always intense, the sensation of being stretched and filled magnified by his body’s hypersensitivity. Thankfully, his body adjusted quickly and Naruto braced his hands on Minato’s shoulders. He began to ride his lover hard, his thighs flexing as he bounced in his lap.

Minato was completely enthralled by Naruto’s erotic beauty, his sinuous movements and how his body felt around him, so silky and tight, no matter how many times they had intercourse. Supporting Naruto’s lower back, he leaned up to lick the trail of sweat trickling its way down his neck. As Naruto arched into him with a moan, Minato latched onto one of his nipples and worried it with his teeth until it stiffened and flushed pink. Naruto gave a choked scream and his rhythm faltered as the intense burst of pleasure/pain took him unaware, “Ah-!”

Inordinately pleased by Naruto’s reaction, Minato grinned as he held Naruto’s hips still and took up a faster tempo. Naruto writhed in his lap, half-heartedly trying to break out of his grip, simultaneously pulling away and pushing back into the intense pleasure wracking his body. His breaths were full-on pants now and it was getting really hard for him to keep his wits about him when it felt so good.

Minato was about to bite Naruto’s neck again to bring his seal to fore when he recalled the other seal on his stomach. Wanting to see how sensitive Naruto was with that defunct seal, Minato changed his mind. He channelled a little chakra to his fingertips and pressed them to Naruto’s stomach as he gave a particularly sharp thrust of his hips.

  


* * *

  


It was as though a bomb had gone off. Minato’s familiar chakra touching the defunct seal on his stomach set off a wave of pure pleasure. Suddenly, it seemed as though Minato was not only in him physically but in his soul as well. It was such sweet and intimate pleasure as a hole in his soul was filled. Naruto had never felt such wholeness. Completely lost in it, he climaxed hard, clenching tightly around Minato as he clung onto him. He passed out.

Minato was also overwhelmed and he came barely seconds after Naruto, unable to contain his groans. Somehow, he’d also felt what Naruto was feeling and the combination of both his and Naruto’s climax had almost knocked him out. After recovering from his daze, he was alarmed to see Naruto unconscious. Carefully disengaging from Naruto, he did a quick rudimentary scan. Minato was relieved to discover that it was only exhaustion.

Naruto soon stirred awake. When he saw Minato hovering over him in concern, he pulled him down to kiss him affectionately and reassured, “Wow, that was literally mind-blowing. I wouldn’t mind if you did that again.”

“Are you sure? I don’t think it’s a good idea to mess around with something like that.” Minato said sceptically as he fussed over Naruto, mentally hitting himself for being so stupid. Never assume that seals are safe even if they don’t work anymore, especially if they’re still undamaged. Naruto chuckled softly and wrapped his arms around him, “No, it’s ok. You didn’t hurt me at all – it was really the best thing I’d ever felt. Cuddle me?”

Minato crumbled after barely a few seconds of looking into Naruto’s puppy eyes. Embracing Naruto, he murmured an apology. Naruto slapped his leg lightly, “Don’t say sorry. You did nothing wrong.”

“Ok, if you say so. I’m not going to do it again until I’ve made sure that there’s no adverse effect. I don’t want to risk it,” Minato said. Naruto replied, “Fair enough. It’s better to be safe than sorry, I guess. But I don’t think there will be any harm, just saying…”

They laid together on the bed in companionable silence, enjoying the close intimacy and languor of post-coitus. Naruto was about to doze off when he remembered that they were still dirty. Taking a bath sounded really tempting but he felt too lazy and comfortable to leave the warmth of Minato’s embrace and the bed. At the same time, he didn’t like being covered with body fluids. The need to get clean won out. Sighing in resignation, he prodded Minato, “Hey, I want to go to take a shower.”

“Can I join you?” Minato asked with a distinct undertone of mischief. Naruto glanced up at him and easily deciphered his meaning. He slowly grinned, “Sure, why not?”

  



	18. Tenebroso 18

# 

The planning phase for the culling of Namikaze’s list had taken longer than expected with much careful revision and several contingencies put in place, in case the information on their quarries proved to be false. Danzo wouldn’t put it past that young man to be capable of dirty backstabbing. However, Namikaze would not betray him this time – they both recognised that Namikaze still required his forces to do the dirty work for Konoha. If Namikaze was going to betray him, it would be at a time Danzo was least expecting it. He faintly smirked at the thought. My, wasn’t it interesting that Sarutobi’s chosen successor would turn out to be even more of a devious snake than Orochimaru in some ways?

 

While it was a necessity for shinobi, especially leaders, to be well versed in the art of deception, Sarutobi had never really enjoyed employing it. While Danzo could understand where his old team-mate was coming from, he also found it unrealistic, albeit admirable foolishness. But somehow, Sarutobi made it work. He wasn’t known as the “God of Shinobi” for nothing.

 

However, Namikaze Minato was a dangerous enigma. His record spotless, his skills unrivalled, charismatic and intelligent, combined with his well-deserved reputation, he seemed like a fairy-tale hero with no head for politics. But recent events had forced him to reassess his evaluation.

 

Danzo had for a long time, dismissed Namikaze as a harmless and idealistic fool in the mould of Jiraiya and Sarutobi. He had only approved of Namikaze’s succession as the Yondaime Hokage because at least, Namikaze would be less harmful to Konoha than Orochimaru who would have brought it to ruin with his obsession for power and immortality.

 

Danzo had even contemplated seizing control from behind the scenes, should Namikaze prove incompetent with his naiveté and inexperience. But Namikaze had done surprisingly well and handled himself expertly in the political battlefield. He had even found himself impressed by Namikaze’s political savviness and proactivity. 

 

Within the last year, Namikaze had easily done away with most, if not all, of his political opposition through a potent mix of underhanded means, legal mastery and sheer force of personality. An impressive feat considering how young the twenty-four year old Namikaze was in comparison to Sarutobi who had ascended to the seat in his early thirties (from a civilian perspective, it may not seem much but in shinobi terms, it was a vast difference due to large gaps in experience and maturity).

 

But yet, despite Namikaze’s meteoric rise, why hadn’t Danzo seen Namikaze’s darker side before now? He had never seen that trap in the office coming until it was too late and he was now paying for his mistake. It chilled him to think that Namikaze might actually harbour a greater evil than Orochimaru but thankfully; he showed no such inclination outside of a firm and strict governance. He also wondered why Namikaze wanted these S-ranked missing nin dead – as far as Danzo knew, they hadn’t done anything to Konoha and it seemed like a waste of resources to go after their heads in retrospect. But for now, he and Root would bide their time and obey.

                                                                                             

* * *

 

 

Minato closely examined the copy of Naruto’s seal on paper in front of him. With Naruto’s permission, he had copied the seal on his stomach for further study. As he traced the complex dark lines of the seal with his eyes, he begrudgingly had to give kudos to his alternate counterpart for coming up with such a complicated and masterful seal. From what he could understand and from Naruto’s stories, this innocuous seal with strong Uzumaki fuinjutsu elements could not only effectively constrain Kyuubi but also convert its poisonous chakra into usable human chakra over time. In essence, it was like a battery converter.

 

With Kyuubi’s infinite chakra as the fuel and an airtight seal cum battery converter, it was no surprise that Naruto had been a very hyperactive child and S-rank ninjutsu-slinging powerhouse in his teens (though some of it could be contributed to his Uzumaki genes for Uzumaki were famed for their vitality). But even so...it still didn’t explain why he had obtained such an intense reaction when he touched it with his chakra. It was pointless testing the inert seal on paper so he couldn’t really investigate the cause further without Naruto.

 

Minato went through the seal once more, noting that aside from the main Uzumaki spiral, there were four tenets evoking the four gods of the cardinal directions. While he couldn’t decipher the other parts yet, he already knew that the seal had been used to summon Shinigami in order to constrain Kyuubi. But yet, there was still something missing from the big picture. The seal was far too complicated for summoning Shinigami and trapping Kyuubi alone. It had to serve another purpose.

 

Deciding that there wasn’t much more to be done, Minato sighed and rolled up the paper before sealing it into his drawer for safekeeping. He had work to do and fuinjutsu studies could wait until he got to speak with Naruto about the seal.

 

* * *

 

 

“Okay, keep it steady… Just like that… Now!” Kushina yelled fiercely as she slammed her palms down onto the paper. Her blue chakra briefly flared around her hands before being absorbed into the paper and the black ink. The massive ink calligraphy glowed gold as the seal activated. Beside and opposite her in the cardinal points of the seal that spanned the room, there were three other medics who were channelling healing green chakra into the activated seal. The golden glow soon turned a vibrant green as the seal began its work.

 

In the centre of the seal, Mitarashi Anko the former apprentice and guinea pig of Orochimaru, grimaced in pain as black curse marks covered her skin, as if the seal was sensing its imminent demise and was preparing to fight. A doctor behind her made a discomfited noise as Anko suddenly shot upright from the floor with yellow snake-like eyes. She turned towards Kushina as she snarled like a possessed beast – which, she was. Orochimaru’s curse seal was now in control.

 

The ANBU men standing guard readied their weapons. Shooting them a warning look, Kushina narrowed her eyes and immediately lashed out her chakra chains to immobilise Anko. She said, “Chill, Anko-chan. It’ll be over soon.” Anko hissed as she scratched and pulled at the chains around her torso.

 

As Kushina held Anko still with her chains, the luminescent seal glyphs finally made contact with her feet. Upon contact, the glyphs seemed to dance before shooting upward her legs like branches. The black marks receded away from the glowing green marks that curled and lanced forward like the thorns on Kushina’s chakra chains. Whenever a black mark was caught, it would splinter apart as the green marks purified Orochimaru’s corruption. It would have been an entrancing and beautiful sight if not for poor Anko’s pained screams as her chakra coils were scoured clean.

 

Wincing in sympathy at how much unbearable pain the poor girl must be in, Kushina tried to encourage her, “I know it hurts, Anko-chan, but you must hold on!”

 

Anko didn’t hear her as she continued to scream. Kushina gritted her teeth and prayed that the procedure would finish quickly. Disturbed, the doctor behind her murmured, “Shouldn’t we stop now…? It’s hurting her.”

 

“No, we aren’t stopping now! Not when it’s almost _over_!” Kushina yelled, shooting a glare over her shoulder at the doctor. Right at this moment, the screams stopped and there was a brilliant flash of green light. When Kushina opened her eyes, she saw a fine black mist leave Anko’s neck and it evaporated into thin air. She grinned victoriously, “It’s done. Medics, check on her if you will.”

 

The medics were already rushing to check on Anko’s vitals as Kushina stood up and stretched her stiff back. She walked over to Anko and smiled, glad to see her free of Orochimaru’s curse seal.

 

“How’s she?”

 

“Her chakra levels are low but otherwise, she’s perfectly fine. We will need to observe her for a few days to ensure that there are no lingering effects.”

 

“…Kushina-sama?” Anko’s weak voice called out. The girl had woken up, much sooner than everyone had expected. Pleasantly surprised, Kushina immediately knelt down beside her and replied, “I’m here. How are you feeling?”

 

Anko touched the back of her neck with a look of wonderment, “I feel _clean_. It’s gone for real?”

 

“Yeah.” Kushina ruffled her hair with a grin, “It’s gone. You’re free now, Anko-chan.”

 

Anko blinked rapidly before she grinned back, “I owe you a huge favour. Whenever you want to eat dango, it’s all on me!”

 

“Haha, no need. It was my pleasure and I prefer ramen anyway. Now just rest and get well, ok?” Anko nodded and Kushina was warmed to see her look so peaceful and happy for the first time in ages. As the doctors and medics whisked Anko away, the ANBU leader saluted her, “Good work, Uzumaki-san. Sarutobi-sama will be expecting a report by tomorrow.”

 

“Yeah, I know. I’m going to rest now, I’m totally beat.” Kushina waved her hand dismissively at the ANBU, as she stifled a yawn.

 

“Noted, Uzumaki-san.”

 

* * *

 

 

Jiraiya was back in Ame and found that he really didn’t miss the horrendous weather at all. Urgh, it was just so freaking wet and cold all the darn time!  Toad Sage he might be, but he wasn’t a toad! Moisture would have ruined his sealing materials in no time if he hadn’t taken precautions to seal them in waterproof scrolls. Really, the things he did for Minato.

  
Despite his vendetta against Ame’s constant rain, he really didn’t mind meeting up with his former students again. He had grown fond of the little orphans he used to teach and was rather proud to learn that the three little kids had grown up well and capable of defending themselves, even if they were now leading a rebel organisation, those brats! Peering through the rain, Jiraiya rubbed his chin as he thought, “ _But still…how did that Fox Sage know about them in the first place?”_

And not to mention, the Fox Sage was one mysterious fellow himself with no background at all. Through out all his travels in the Elemental Nations, he had attempted to trace the man’s background but it was as if he never existed. He was like a ghost.

 

Or perhaps, it might be more accurate to suggest that the Fox Sage was actually a kitsune, given his kitsune-like tendencies and mischief. Jiraiya always marvelled at how well Minato and Naruto got along despite their vastly different personalities. But then again, wasn’t it Minato who had found Naruto first and saved his life? It wasn’t so surprising in the light of that titbit of information.

 

Ah hell. Not again. He’d sunk into the mud for the umpteenth time. Grumbling to himself and wistfully wishing that he could use chakra to walk on top of the mud instead of having to go the old-fashioned way in order to avoid being detected by enemies, Jiraiya pulled his feet free from the thick mud with a loud squelch. Really, he hated Ame’s rain and muddy soil.

 

In the dim distance, an orange flame emerged along with a blue haired woman. She saluted him and waited for him to come closer. Jiraiya grinned and trudged through the mud faster.

 

“Hey looking good, Konan! How have you been? Where are the other tadpoles?”

 

Konan smiled demurely and led the way to their hideout as she replied, “I’m well, thank you for asking Jiraiya-sensei. Yahiko is busy helping with building efforts and Nagato is teaching the orphans. May I ask what brings you to Ame?”

 

Jiraiya nodded and said, “That’s good to know. I’ll rather wait until all three of you are together so I don’t have to repeat myself.”

 

Konan nodded and they continued their journey in comfortable silence. Soon, they arrived at a sheer rock face and Konan pressed her hand to the wall. Jiraiya detected a faint hum of chakra as the security seals verified Konan’s identity. The rock wall faded to reveal a small cave opening, just barely big enough to allow Jiraiya to walk through without having to stoop. But to be fair, Jiraiya was quite tall himself.

 

It was warm and dry inside the cave. Konan guided Jiraiya down winding tunnels and he noted that most of the people within the cave were not highly trained shinobi. Those with ninja training were at most, as skilled as a low level chuunin. The rest were dominantly civilians. Despite the dim lighting from the torches, Jiraiya could discern that the people didn’t look very well nourished and their clothes were in bad shape. Jiraiya frowned at the new pieces of information. It seemed that things weren’t quite going so well in Ame just as the Fox Sage had stated.

 

When they finally reached their destination, a medium-sized room that looked to be a small conference room with a table and some chairs, Konan said, “Please make yourself comfortable. I shall fetch Yahiko and Nagato and return shortly.”

 

“Sure.” Jiraiya acknowledged her words and dumped his bag on the ground as he sat down on the chair closest to the door. As he waited for his students, he idly wondered if there was another unknown purpose in his mission other than to recruit Akatsuki as allies for Konoha and investigate the rumours of Danzo working together with Hanzo.

 

Soon, Konan reappeared with her companions and Jiraiya stood up from the chair to greet them. Yahiko lit up on seeing Jiraiya and energetically bounced over to give his former teacher a friendly hug, “Sensei! It’s good to see you again!”

 

Jiraiya ruffled Yahiko’s orange hair, “Good to see you too, Yahiko. So you’ve been eating your vegetables, huh?”

 

“Well yeeaah, but they still suck.” Yahiko drawled with a wink as he pulled back. Jiraiya shook his head and teased, “Still a brat though.”

 

“Hey!”

  
The more sedate Nagato bowed and formally greeted him,“It is a pleasure to see you once more in Ame.” Jiraiya chuckled and swiftly pulled him into the hug, “You’ve not changed at all! Still so formal and quiet as ever.”

 

Nagato allowed Jiraiya to hug him before gently pulling away from him to gesture at the table, “Neither have you, Jiraiya-sensei. Shall we talk?”

 

Jiraiya nodded in agreement as he sat back down again. He withdrew a scroll from his coat and passed it over to Yahiko, the leader of the Ame trio. He explained, “Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, Namikaze Minato, wants to propose an alliance. As he is also a former student of mine like you, he believes that there is a possibility for new relations between Konoha and Ame, as already proven by my unique relationship with you.”

 

Yahiko’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He broke the seal on the scroll and unrolled it to read the missive as both Nagato and Konan peered over his shoulders. After a few seconds of scanning the scroll over Yahiko’s shoulder, Nagato finally replied, “That’s really unexpected. But why would he want to approach Akatsuki instead of Hanzo? We are not the legitimate authority of Amegakure. Even if you might be our mutual teacher, it is still very irregular for a Kage to propose an alliance with a rebel organisation.”

 

Both Konan and Yahiko nodded in agreement. Jiraiya rubbed his chin and replied carefully, “It’s a bit complicated but Konoha has good reason to believe that Hanzo might be ousted soon. He’s growing old and from what I’ve seen so far, he’s not been making many friends with his constant warring. In fact, most of the people in your organisation are the younger generation of Ame nin who fled, aren’t they? While you may not possess the Kage hat, you already have the backing of Ame’s people behind you. So, Konoha believes that it is more worthwhile to approach you, the likely new leaders of Ame once Hanzo is out of the picture.”

 

“I see...” Yahiko murmured as he read through the scroll again with renewed interest. Konan and Nagato seemed to communicate silently through looks before Konan spoke up, “That is good reasoning. It is true that Hanzo is growing old and has made many enemies. But it doesn’t mean that he has lost any of his power. In fact, we are already hard-pressed trying to rescue villagers and keeping ourselves alive without causing more bloodshed. How does this alliance benefit us when Konoha is so far away? You might be a powerful ninja but did you not lose to Hanzo the Salamander before? Konoha also does not benefit as Ame has little to offer in return, and worse still, if you were to fall in battle against Hanzo, Konoha would lose one of its strongest ninja. This alliance doesn’t make sense in that view.”

 

Jiraiya mulled over Konan’s words carefully and contemplated whether he should reveal the second objective of his mission – finding out if Danzo was making back-alley deals with Hanzo against Konoha’s wellbeing. Deciding that it was too early to reveal his hand when he still did not have all the information, he put up his hand and suggested, “You do bring up some valid points, Konan-chan. I would love to discuss it more but I’m feeling exhausted. Perhaps we can continue the talks further the next day? You could also take the time to consider the proposal further before we go into the nitty-gritty of negotiations.”

 

“Of course. My sincere apologies for being poor hosts, Jiraiya-sensei. I’ll have someone bring you a meal and hot tea later.” Konan acquiesced to Jiraiya’s request and gracefully got up. Both Yahiko and Nagato followed suit. As the trio filed out of the room, Yahiko squeezed Jiraiya’s arm fondly, “Even if this proposal doesn’t work, we still appreciate you coming all the way to visit. We’ve all missed you, especially Nagato.”

 

Nagato flushed, his blush highly visible on his pale complexion and clashing with his maroon hair. He jabbed Yahiko in the ribs with his elbow, hissing, “Lies!”

 

Yahiko grunted, immediately releasing Jiraiya’s arm to swat at Nagato but the man had already moved out of range. Jiraiya snorted in amusement and slapped his back, “Now, now, boys. Take your fight elsewhere or Konan will have your hides. You don’t want to be poor hosts in front of a guest, would you?”

 

Both men paled at the thought of Konan’s wrath and they hurriedly walked away, “Sleep well tonight, sensei!” “Please don’t tell her tomorrow?”

 

Jiraiya huffed a laugh as he watched them flee down the corridor. Closing the door, he muttered, “Still brats.”


End file.
